‚Introduction. Jenny Brockmann: #LIMITS’ by Katrin Sohns
Jenny Brockmann: #LIMITS
At Goethe Institut London
Introduction
We are delighted to officially inaugurate Seat#12, an artwork by Jenny
Brockmann, currently situated in the library of the Goethe-Institut London.
This artwork is all about the topic of balance: The 12 aluminium branches are
mounted on a single central axis, with 12 seats that people can sit on but
forcing them to find a partner on the opposite side. Anyone choosing to sit
on one of the seats automatically finds themselves in a delicate balance but
also, in a certain dependency towards/of the others.
It was this topic that interested us when we first started speaking to the artist
Jenny Brockmann in order to explore possible ways of collaboration. With
societies seeing themselves divided, with votes of one half deciding over the
fate of the other half, with a pandemic making each one of us very aware of
our fragilities, of the consequences of our own actions, we were intrigued to
start a series of conversations on Seat #12 around the topic of „mutual
dialogue“ and „equilibrium“ – both in collaboration with the artist as well as in
the context of other programmes at the Goethe-Institut London.
At the end of 2020, we were able to acquire the artwork. With the pandemic
still raging for many months, it is only now that we see ourselves in the
position to officially launch this series of workshops under the title #LIMITS,
curated by Linda Rocco. For us, this marks the inauguration of the artwork and
we look forward to many more „entanglements“ in the months and years
ahead.
We would like to thank both Jenny Brockmann as well as Linda Rocco for the
many conversations and our collaboration during the last 24 months.
Katrin Sohns,
Head of Cultural Programmes,
Northwestern Europe,
Goethe-Institut London