Abstract

M&G Real Estate, the owner of state-of-the-art office complex, 40 Leadenhall, has commissioned a permanent site-specific artwork by Lothar Götz on Fenchurch Buildings, as part of a public art programme curated by leading cultural studio, LACUNA.
“May Day is an ancient festival celebrating the arrival of Spring, deeply rooted in the history of Europe – where people danced, and still dance, around May Poles. I‘ve always loved to dance. I love clubbing and once even thought of becoming a dancer myself. This love of movement and pleasure in many kinds of dance is often embedded in the titles and identity of many of my murals and paintings: Dance Diagonal (Towner Gallery, Eastbourne), Xanadu (Leeds Art Gallery), Pas de Trois (a solo show at domobaal paying homage to Oskar Schlemmer's 'Triadisches Ballett'), and Purple Rain, to name but a few. May Day is celebrated in many countries as a day to champion worker’s rights. It is a moment to mark something fresh we are looking forward to; joyful, new, bright and uplifting, a better world. May Day is a symbol of excitement, positivity, empathy and friendship. It has always been one of my most favourite days of the year. May Day, the mural - a new permanent commission at Fenchurch Buildings, part of the 40 Leadenhall development in the City of London- entrenches and honours all these human and societal references. It is where paint, colour, architecture and space meet. I hope the mural will awake similar feelings for passers-by, echoing my joyful memories of this special day. A title to celebrate the positive power of art.”
Lothar Götz.

LACUNA
Convene Level 4 22 Bishopsgate London EC2N 4BQ
+44 (0) 203393 2924 www.lacuna-projects.com office@lacuna-projects.com
May Day is the artist’s first public outdoor wall painting in London and the work forms an integral part of the wider public art programme at 40 Leadenhall, curated by LACUNA. Installed by the London Mural Company, the striking 12m tall mural is visible to pedestrians from Leadenhall Street and Fenchurch buildings. The piece will also be viewable from various vantage points inside the building. The work will enliven the space and is designed to surprise, inspire and excite building occupiers and pedestrians alike.
Designed by Make Architects, 40 Leadenhall, was the largest office development to complete in London’s Square Mile last year. It’s designed to be green in use and will be among the UK’s first buildings to achieve the NABERS certification. The building’s ‘vertical village’ includes a fitness studio, a 22,500 sq ft treatment and changing area, a wellness suite, library and a 30-seat cinema room. Employees will also benefit from the building being fully SMART enabled, allowing them to use touchless technology to book spaces at the 200-seat auditorium, two restaurants, 17 outdoor green spaces and terraces and the communal 11th floor rooftop clubhouse and providing multiple opportunities to work and relax.
Geoff Harris Managing Director, Head of Development, Europe, at Nuveen Real Estate who developed the building on behalf of M&G, said:
“What a privilege to have the opportunity to play a part in enriching the public realm with such an uplifting piece of art, congratulations Lothar.”
Stella Ioannou, Director, Lacuna, said:
“We are delighted to be working with Lothar in this unique corner of the City which has been made accessible by the beautiful new building at 40 Leadenhall. The City is full of nooks and crannies representative of the incredible breadth of history in the Square Mile and will now include a fantastic contemporary artwork which references May Day celebrations which took part in this historic part of London on Undershaft, literally a stone’s throw away.”
Earlier this year saw the installation of 2 sculptures by Austrian artist, Erwin Wurm, in the Central Hall of 40 Leadenhall: Hurry (2023) and Trip (2021). Both sculptures are from his ‘Bags’ series and provide a subtle social critique of contemporary culture. Taking highly coveted handbags as his inspiration, Wurm bases his work on luxury goods, often acquired to serve as symbols of sophistication, wealth and social prowess. These bags are often seen as extensions of their owners and Wurm, ironically, anthropomorphizes them by giving them a set of sleek long legs to further suggest this association.
The work will be viewable from 3rd June.
For further information please contact Rachel Ball at Lacuna: rachel@lacuna-projects.com
ABOUT 40 LEADENHALL
40 Leadenhall was acquired by M&G Real Estate in 2019 on behalf of M&G’s £128 billion With Profits Fund. It was the largest office development to complete in London’s Square Mile in 2024. The 900,000 sq ft space is designed to be green in use and will be among the UK’s first buildings to achieve the NABERS certification. M&G Real Estate is a leading financial solutions provider for global real estate investors. As part of M&G Investments’ £74 billion private markets business, M&G Real Estate has a sector leading approach to responsible property management and is committed to
LACUNA
Convene Level 4 22 Bishopsgate London EC2N 4BQ
+44 (0) 203393 2924 www.lacuna-projects.com office@lacuna-projects.com

continuously improving the sustainability performance of its funds. Globally M&G Real Estate manages more than £34 billion (as at 31 December 2024) of assets on behalf of clients, providing a range of strategies and solutions.
40 Leadenhall London @40leadenhall.london
ABOUT LACUNA
LACUNA is a leading cultural studio realising contemporary art and events in urban spaces and local communities. Lacuna collaborates with urban leaders and collectives, decision makers and creative visionaries. to realise contemporary art and events in urban spaces and local communities. We connect clients, including developers, city corporations, and landowners, with artists at various stages of their careers - established, mid-career, and emerging - to create collaborations where artworks sit in harmony with the chosen site. The 40 Leadenhall Public Art Programme is led by Stella Ioannou, Lacuna’s Founding Director and Artistic Director of Sculpture in the City. Since 2011 Lacuna collaborates with the City of London Corporation to deliver London’s largest free outdoor sculpture show each summer called Sculpture in the City, and realises many more activation, community engagement and corporate art collection programmes.
www.lacuna-projects.com @lacunaprojects
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ABOUT THE ARTIST
Lothar Götz
Lothar Götz is renowned for work that uses the language of abstraction to remake, play with and shift viewers’ readings of architecture and space. His practice spans drawing and painting through to full size wall paintings and site-specific installations for settings including museums, underground stations and hospitals.
"You begin with a dot, stretch to a line and expand to the plane. Lothar Götz extends this conventional grammar of drawing into the third dimension, claiming the space of architecture as his drawing board. He does so with the precise vocabulary of geometric abstraction, all the while articulating it in his own poetic idiom of colour. Götz's large–scale wall drawings are dialogues with given environments, including foyers, reading rooms, offices or staircases. By spending a lot of time in the given room, the artist reacts to its idiosyncrasies, developing a network of lines between architectural points in space that find their way onto the page: a drawing, a sketch is created. Over time, the lines become a distinct plan, dividing architectural areas into functional, aesthetic or proportional sections. The next step is the development of a polychromatic pattern. Guided by experience and artistic decision instead of algorithms or random rules, the pattern develops intuitively, balancing the underlying, sharply defined geometry of line with an exuberant and joyful show of colour. The artist transfers the design onto the wall using chalk and line – an ancient technique applied for modern means.”
LACUNA
Convene Level 4 22 Bishopsgate London EC2N 4BQ
+44 (0) 203393 2924 www.lacuna-projects.com office@lacuna-projects.com

Daniel F. Herrmann (Eisler Curator & Head of Curatorial Studies) an extract from the catalogue to accompany The London Open 2015 at The Whitechapel Gallery, London.
Born in Günzburg, Bavaria in 1963, Götz, who lives in London and Berlin, is Associate Professor of Fine Art at Sunderland University and has exhibited widely in the UK and internationally. Götz was honoured with the prestigious Abbey Fellowship at The British School at Rome in 2010, the Chocheme Fellowship at Byam Shaw/Central St Martins School of Art, London in 2006 and the Artist Links Residency in Shanghai/Chinanin in 2004.
The artist's upcoming solo exhibition will open in May 2025 at Mucciaccia Gallery, London. Recent solo exhibitions include The Four Seasons, domobaal, London; Volcano, Petra Rinck Galerie, Düsseldorf, Germany (2023); Pool, curated by Zoe Watson, Holden Gallery, Manchester Metropolitan University, Manchester (2021); SALVATION, domobaal (2020) Dance Diagonal at Towner, Eastbourne (2020); If Only, Petra Rinck Galerie, Dusseldorf, Germany (2019) and Xanadu at Leeds City Art Gallery. Group exhibitions include Maud Cotter: a collect of will, installed on Lothar Götz's site specific mural The Four Seasons, with Special Guest Simon Cutts, domobaal.
Public site-specific installations have included at Piccadilly Underground Station, London; at the Miro Foundation, Barcelona; Southbank Centre, London; Pallant House Gallery, Chichester; Leeds Art Gallery; MIMA, Middlesbrough and at Towner Eastbourne, which was his first major commission on the south coast and the first time an artist has been commissioned to create an artwork for Towner’s exterior.
Götz has work in public art collections in London and Germany including the Government Art Collection, London, UK; Collection and Usher Museum, Lincoln, UK; Mead Gallery, Warwickshire, UK; Ja–Li–Ma Collection Köln/Düsseldorf, Germany and Museum Kunstpalast Düsseldorf, Germany.
Represented by domobaal, London.
https://www.domobaal.com @_domobaal_
ABOUT LONDON MURAL COMPANY
The London Mural Company prides itself on creating contemporary and professional artwork for interior and exterior spaces. Established in 2015, TLMC has continued to build a reputation for a professional client service and impeccable standards of production. Trusted by a wide range of clients, councils and artists alike, and with a growing network of highly skilled creatives TLMC continues to work attentively with clients, developing ideas, and evolving concepts to produce original and bespoke artwork that will transform and reflect the personality of any space.
https://www.thelondonmuralcompany.com/#thelondomuralcompany4 @thelondonmuralcompany

LACUNA
Convene Level 4 22 Bishopsgate London EC2N 4BQ
+44 (0) 203393 2924 www.lacuna-projects.com office@lacuna-projects.com