The German curator, writer, and art historian, Dr. Dietrich Mahlow wrote a study of the spaces created by the [installation] of Reticulárea, created by the Venezuelan visual artist originally from Germany, Gego [Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912–1994]. His starting point was a meditation on the mechanisms of perception in contemporary art. The curator states that the environment created around Gego’s networks is open, mobile, and vital, as opposed to the closed forms of architectural space. As the curator sees it, the wire lines constitute forces that are perceived while viewing [the work] and which are constantly changing direction. Taken together, these lines make it possible for the viewers to see a fluctuating space, an atmosphere, which may be controlled by the viewers, as they make it their own.

The German curator, writer, and art historian, Dr. Dietrich Mahlow was responsible for the participation of the Venezuelan visual artist originally from Germany, Gego [Gertrud Goldschmidt, 1912–1994] in the 1982 exhibition, Spielraum-Raumspiele [Play Room/Play Space] at Kunstausstellung zu den 2. Frankfurt Festen in der Alten Oper vom [the Old Opera House]. For this exhibition, Gego renders an environment with a Reticulárea designed in and for the site, called the Reticulárea Alte Oper, shown in the Liszt Room in the theater. After it was disassembled, the work disappeared. Thirty-eight modern artists participated in the exhibition, Spielraum-Raumspiele. Working with Gego on joint events was the American composer, poet, and essayist, John Cage (1912–1992). Other [foreign] artists who participated in this great exhibition were the Italian Conceptual artist, Piero Manzoni; Claes Oldenburg, who was one of the most distinguished figures in Pop Art; the photographer and installation artist, Kazuo Katase; and the Swiss painter, Alfonso Hüppi. [German] artist participants included Adolf Luther, a Kinetic sculptor and artist; Christiane Möbus, an Objective sculptor and artist as well as a professor; and Oscar Schlemmer, who was a painter, sculptor, designer, and choreographer associated with the Bauhaus School. In this text, Mahlow, who was already a connoisseur of Gego’s work, describes the effect of the spaces created by Gego, starting with the mechanisms of perception attributable to the contemporary sensibility.This essay was included in the documents selected for the bilingual book, Desenredando la red. La Reticulárea de Gego. Una antología de respuestas críticas / Untangling the Web: Gego’s Reticulárea, An Anthology of Critical Response, organized by María Elena Huizi and Ester Crespin.