Interactions, interventions, even possible irritations give our visitors the opportunity to actively participate in the art. Nevin Aladağ, for example, covers the roof with her Verflechtungen (Interweavings) – an installation of carpets, basketball baskets, and handcrafted balls that invite visitors to play and communicate with each other. Benches with handwritten messages – Do you want us here or not – by Finnegan Shannon invite visitors to pause for a moment and offer a place for reflection in dialogue with the other artworks. 

Some works seem to allow for pure play, such as the ping-pong tables by Rirkrit Tiravanija, which nevertheless hint at a social concern, or the football goal walls Camouflage/Torwand 1–3 [Croy, Kleff, Maier] by Olaf Nicolai on the south lawn, which connect different cultural and social levels. While Klara Hobza’s Animaloculomat in the foyer invites us to take a selfie of a very special kind, with Ryan Gander’s mouse in the staircase, his daughter’s voice is part of the indirect interaction with us. Franka Marlene Foth’s Terpsichorean in the media art space enables a completely different kind of directness and communication, in which both the dancers and the visitors are immersively involved. Jan St. Werner’s two sound stations Excitatory Yards allow us to perceive the architecture of the Bundeskunsthalle in a new way – through the active movements of the visitors, who thus control their own acoustic experience. In addition, Franka Marlene Foth and John Provencher lead us into a digital form of perception with their contributions on the LED wall on the façade, thus enlivening this place previously untouched by art.

Each of these works demonstrates that art can be an open offer, serving both individual and shared experience – a togetherness in which rigid roles and behaviours are challenged, and openness, tolerance and sensitivity are promoted. All participating artists are interested in forms of expression and techniques that can reduce the possible distance to art, but also within a complex and diverse society.