Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz: You Ask Me To Not Give Up Up Up / Abbatiale de Bellelay

In their exhibition “You Ask Me To Not Give Up Up Up” at the Abbatiale de Bellelay in Switzerland, artist duo Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz present a striking roller coaster-shaped installation within a Baroque church. The wooden structure, topped with steel rails, navigates the site’s architectural constraints, winding between columns, passing through a narrow door, and soaring over the central altar. Its suspended loops subtly respond to the church’s vaulted features while evoking the atmosphere of an amusement park. The roller coaster’s form underscores the installation’s themes, blending adrenaline-fueled joy and fear to reflect contemporary afflictions and their historical origins.

A loudspeaker mounted on a cart travels along the rails, climbing slowly, pausing at peaks, and plunging rapidly downhill. These dynamic movements mirror recent political turbulence, aligning with Boudry/Lorenz’s focus on counter-narratives to challenges against gender, sexual orientation, and lifestyle freedoms. The loudspeaker plays a sound work created in collaboration with artist Colin Self, whose elegiac voice fills the church, amplified by echoes into a choral effect. This sonic experience evokes sadness, commemoration, and collective emotion, suggesting resilience amid emancipatory struggles.

Boudry/Lorenz, active since 2007, are known for video installations and sculptures exploring visibility and protest. Their work, featured at the 58th Venice Biennale and recent solo exhibitions, celebrates collective resistance and the enduring power of queer narratives.

Pauline Boudry and Renate Lorenz: You Ask Me To Not Give Up Up Up / Abbatiale de Bellelay. Bellelay (Switzerland), July 24, 2025.

PS: Huge thanks to technician and artist Ivan Korshunov (ASAP-Studios, Basel) for the support with the drone footage inside the abbey and the point-of-view footage of the loudspeaker.