With the exhibition ‚Bypass‘ by Jenny Brockmann, the Kasseler Kunstverein is hosting an interdisciplinary project in collaboration with the curatorial collective Jatiwangi Art Factory. Elements of the project are a total of 8 kinetic sculptures in the form of seating circles with 12 seats (Jenny Brockmann: Seat#12), which are set up on Friedrichsplatz as well as in the prison of Kassel.

Based on the aesthetics of a conference table, Seat#12 has a swinging function. Consisting of twelve metal seats connected to each other on a central axis, up to twelve people can take a seat on Brockmann’s object and enter into a non-verbal dialogue about balance.

For the duration of the exhibition, Bypass functions as a temporary, public and participatory thinking laboratory with a series of curated events, the so-called Entanglements, which take place on Seat#12. On four dates, the performative-discursive workshops invite experts, activists, artists and visitors from the neighbourhood to jointly research the properties of the heart from literal and metaphorical perspectives. Bypass refers content-wise to the allegory of the heart, a hollow muscular organ that pumps blood or haemolymph through the body by contractions and ensures the supply of all organs. The heart sets the pace of life or „punctum saliens“, the heartbeat is the first sign of life and at the same time the criterion for distinguishing living beings.

The starting point for this is the preliminary research carried out by Jenny Brockmann with the inmates of the Kassel I correctional institution (JVA), which was carried out in close coordination and cooperation with the prison management and the Hessian Ministry of Justice. For the connection of the interior of the detention center with the public space a special kind of clay (in Indonesian Tanah) plays a central role. The clay is transformed into sounds and can thus establish a connection to rythm and time.

Discursive Performances

Sat, 07.05.2022, 3.30 pm
Entanglement 1: #pause
@Friedrichsplatz
34117 Kassel, Germany

Sat, 14.05.2022, 3.30 pm
Entanglement 2: #pitch – nada
@Friedrichsplatz
Am Friedrichsplatz
34117 Kassel, Germany

Sat, 21.05.2022, 3.30 pm
Entanglement 3: #rhythm
@Friedrichsplatz
Am Friedrichsplatz
34117 Kassel, Germany

Sat, 10.09.2022, 3.30 pm
Entanglement 4: #melody
@ruruHaus documenta fifteen
Ob. Königsstraße 43
34117 Kassel, Germany