The story

For the project Romantic act of reason Ola Lanko is looking for the grey area between rationality and romanticism. She collected dozens of historical images from art, science and daily life. These examples explore on the one hand a rational, analytical approach, but on the other hand are romantic and emotionally charged. In her studio the artist created a big installation which she then photographed.

The installation is arranged around one central element: Tatlin’s tower, a design from 1920 by Russian artist Tatlin. It is surrounded by numerous references, pieces of thoughts, ideas and objects which carry romantic ideals together with pragmatic and functional needs. Four levels of the tower, in the installation, host different examples and resemble the concept of the original structure of the tower.

Another part of the installation is a book in 4 volumes which is called Romantic act of reason: Reference Work. Its 2800 pages contain of all the references, examples, ideas, themes etc that Lanko used while working on her installation.