Urs Lüthi (born 10 September 1947 in

Kriens Kriens is a city and a municipality in the district of Lucerne in the canton of Lucerne in Switzerland. The municipality lies at the foot of the mountain Pilatus, and is a western suburb of Lucerne. History In the oldest documents of the Bened ...

) is a Swiss conceptual artist who attended the School of Applied Arts in Zürich. Noted for using his body and alter ego as the subject of his artworks, he has worked in photography, sculpture, performance, silk-screen, video and painting. Since 1994, Lüthi has worked as university professor in

Kassel Kassel (; in Germany, spelled Cassel until 1926) is a city on the Fulda River in North Hesse, northern Hesse, in Central Germany (geography), central Germany. It is the administrative seat of the Regierungsbezirk Kassel (region), Kassel and the d ...

, Germany and in 2009 Kassel gave Lüthi the Arnold Bode award. Luthi and other artists of this period influenced

Lou Reed Lewis Allan Reed (March 2, 1942October 27, 2013) was an American musician and songwriter. He was the guitarist, singer, and principal songwriter for the rock band the Velvet Underground and had a solo career that spanned five decades. Althoug ...

. He is mentioned as an influence in Reed's ''

Transformer In electrical engineering, a transformer is a passive component that transfers electrical energy from one electrical circuit to another circuit, or multiple Electrical network, circuits. A varying current in any coil of the transformer produces ...

'' album, which contains the hit drag anthem “ Walk on the Wild Side”. Luthi was part of a group of

Continental European Continental Europe or mainland Europe is the contiguous mainland of Europe, excluding its surrounding islands. It can also be referred to ambiguously as the European continent, – which can conversely mean the whole of Europe – and, by so ...

artists who were interested in, and “voiced, in their work, a desire for a

utopian A utopia ( ) typically describes an imagined community or society that possesses highly desirable or near-perfect qualities for its members. It was coined by Sir Thomas More for his 1516 book ''Utopia'', which describes a fictional island soci ...

conception of

androgyny Androgyny is the possession of both masculine and feminine characteristics. Androgyny may be expressed with regard to Sex, biological sex or gender expression. When ''androgyny'' refers to mixed biological sex characteristics in humans, it oft ...

, in which they would embody a unified ambisexuality or realize a perfect union with their lover.” Luthi describes the most significant aspect of their work as "ambivalence...Objectivity is not very important to me: all is objective just as all could be subjective. Therefore, one must take reality into account and actually my awareness of the real, depending on my mood, has thousands of facets."

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* 1947 births Living people People from Vorpommern-Greifswald Swiss contemporary artists {{Switzerland-artist-stub