As part of his 'public preposition' series of works, conceptual artist Mischa Kuball (Düsseldorf) will have a luminous sign on the bridge to Schlossplatz Ludwigslust for a few hours in the early evening hours of Wednesday 8 November 2017, on which "DYS(U)TOPIA" and "UNFINISHED" can be read. With this temporary installation, he refers to the founding of the town by Duke Frederick the Pious, who had his master builder Johann Joachim Busch express his ideal ideas of governance and the state in the construction of the castle, the church and the settlement. With the lettering "UTOPIA", however, Kuball does not just want to draw attention to the historical site after the reopening of the renovated east wing on 6 March, but rather to the possibilities and opportunities of the utopian and its regular failure, which the lettering indicates with the change to "DYSTOPIA". The Greek term was first used by John Stuart Mill in 1868 in a parliamentary debate when he criticised the state of the state. Like John Stuart Mill, Kuball wants to point out the recurring failure and incompleteness of our political utopias in the past and present. At the same time, this raises the question of how we understand the public sphere and society today and how we want to shape our common life together against the backdrop of current political issues such as globalisation or war and displacement.

The light installation was produced as part of the project "non_lieux - vier, fünf (Nicht)-Orte in Marl" for Urban Lights Ruhr 2017 on behalf of Urbane Künste Ruhr.