Fate can be seen as something god-given and predetermined – just ask Odysseus, Aeneas or Jesus. However, fate can also be understood as a future which may be actively influenced by one’s present actions. Regarding this second aspect of luck ask the countless consulting formats which guide the entrepreneurial self to success in neoliberalism: Everyone is the architect of their own fortune. Since the future is undetermined by definition neither of the two variants is correct. This may be one reason for the unbroken fascination of fortune-telling, a charlatanry when it comes to individual fates.

Gaining knowledge about the future by making scientific prognoses, on the other hand, has become a part of everyday life. This kind of foresight can concern socioeconomic developments, the planetary dimension of environmental damage, pandemic dynamics or the potential for escalation of geopolitical frictions. Therefore fragments of possible futures become visible, causing a shift in the human relationship to the future. Human-made apocalypses, be they of ecological, nuclear or socio-political nature, can be spotted in plausible future scenarios without any fortune-telling skills. Such a look into one's own destiny represents a growing problem of human existence and confronts individuals as well as societies with the choice of what to do with their knowledge about the future.

Through a subtle mix of different techniques Brenner depicts this whole topic in the circuesque and fairground-like works shown in this exhibition, confronting us all with our relationship to the future: though luck.