Interactions x WEtransFORM

Free of charge

Since 2023, the Bundeskunsthalle has organised a summer programme of interactions around the building. Now in its third year, this year’s Interactions x WEtransFORM reflects the theme year of sustainability in dialogue with playful installations: in addition to a project by La Fabrique Terrestre on the roof, which illustrates the diversity and resilience of native grass species under the conditions of a potential three-degree rise in temperature, two other positions will be shown that represent visions for a more sustainable and future-oriented design of our environment: Tree.ONE by ecoLogicStudio in the foyer, a synthetic tree made from microalgae, is a prototype of a vision in which we can grow buildings rather than construct them. And the large wood and plant construction Vert by AHEC / OMC°C / Diez Office on the forecourt shows what a sustainable, uncomplicated path to a cooler, greener city can look like.

Once again, various locations in the public space of the Bundeskunsthalle will be occupied: Jeppe Hein’s water pavilion, Circular Appearing Rooms, which is presented every summer on the museum square, and Carsten Höller’s Bonn Slide, which winds its way down the façade, rotating on its own axis. Works from last year, such as Temitayo Ogunbiyi’s organic climbing frame, You will follow the Rhein and compose play (playground), consisting of several steel poles wrapped in plant fibres, and Olaf Nicolai’s three football goal walls, Camouflage/Torwand 1–3 [Croy, Kleff, Maier], remain in the spirit of sustainable thinking and once again enrich the playful parkour. Esra Gülmen’s seesaw Controversy Teeter-Totter offers a playful way of finding a balance between two opposing statements. And Linda Nadji, with her two gilded high seats entitled Meanwhile, questions the options of communication through an unusual change of perspective.

The new works also invite us to play, reflect or linger, such as the sound installation RadiOh Europa by Action Hero, who enchant us with their love songs collected from all over Europe. Or Jonas Brinker, who presents Nightfall on the LED wall and in the Media Art Space, a loving observation of fireflies in New York emitting mating signals with their lights – a symbiosis of the lights of nature and the big city. And Yawei Chen’s Electronic Pets in the foyer explores how people in our rapidly evolving society use digital content, in this case cute animals, for emotional comfort.

Ina Weber’s Rubble Tracks-Mini Golf playfully encourages individual and collective competition with its special mini-golf courses, while Dennis Fuchs’s table tennis work Back and Forth addresses issues of equality and fairness and explores the relationship between the players.

In Raul Walch’s textile installation Carried by the Wind, the different flags vary in their interplay with light and wind, influencing colours and shapes. Tomas Kleiner’s Weather Birch also plays with the movement of the air as an artistic meteorological instrument. Both works visualise the bridge between Interactions and WEtransFORM.

All works and projects contain their own narrative or vision to be discovered alongside the interaction. However, they also explore different visual languages and forms of expression as universal forms of communication, making it clear that openness serves both the individual and the shared experience, promoting togetherness, tolerance and sensitivity, in which behaviour and thought patterns can be challenged, sometimes playfully.

Projects
AHEC / OMC°C / Diez Office, ecoLogicStudio, La Fabrique Terrestre

Artists
Action Hero, Jonas Brinker, Yawei Chen, Dennis Fuchs, Esra Gülmen, Jeppe Hein, Carsten Höller, Tomas Kleiner, Linda Nadji, Olaf Nicolai, Temitayo Ogunbiyi, Raul Walch, Ina Weber