My installation “Curators’ Water” has made it into the Künstlerhaus, in Vienna. Hand-bottled water stands neatly in rows. The (numbered) labels pretend that this might be an edition, and that the bottles contain magic power for those who own, open, enjoy them. Effects may vary with personality – maybe it gives you wings, maybe not. This work is open to many possible interpretations. It plays with the liaison between the artist and the curator, for sure, and with the Christian promise of eternal life which – I’m citing the catalogue – finds its counterpart in admission to the art-historical canon. In the opening speech to his show “Du sollst dir ein Bild machen” (through 8 February), Günther Oberhollenzer, Künstlerhaus’s chief curator, offered this interpretation: “Lena Lapschina setzt sich – augenzwinkernd natürlich – mit dem heiligen Wasser auseinander, als kuratorisches Ritual. Ich finde das eine wunderbare Arbeit – weil Kuratoren manchmal wirklich wie Priester auftreten. Und dieses Augenzwinkern, das hat mir sehr, sehr gut gefallen.” / “Lena Lapschina explores – with a wink, of course – holy water as a curatorial ritual. I think it’s a wonderful work – because curators sometimes indeed do act like priests. And that wink – I really, really liked that!”