The New York-based artist works in a variety of media and art forms – sculpture, painting, sound installation, installation art, collage –, with his entire output being suffused by poetry. For his exhibition at the Aargauer Kunsthaus the artist has opted, rather than showing his varied works isolated from one another, to present them as three-dimensional "total images," like atmospheric stage sets or seductive universes. The eponymous novel that the exhibition title references, Hans Henny Jahnn's Die Nacht aus Blei, serves as his source of inspiration. The novel relates how a man, while roaming around a city during a "leaden" winter night, encounters his own younger self. In the narrative, psychological and metaphysical dimensions overlap and the distinction between past and present is erased. Following the story, Ugo Rondinone's powerful installations oscillate between dreamlike landscapes and actual spaces. At the Aargauer Kunsthaus the artist transforms the galleries on two floors into a comprehensive stage-like ensemble in which anything seems possible.

The exhibition was organised in conjunction with the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León in Spain and with the generous support of Gallery Eva Presenhuber, Zurich.