Via Detour – Ueber Umwege

Via Detour – Ueber Umwege / EN
Curated by Maria Hinze and Peter Becker
Treehouse Hotel „Robins Nest“ 2022, Witzenhausen bei Kassel

A short train ride from Kassel, the treehouse hotel „Robins Nest“ provides the location for an art project conceived to run in parallel to documenta 15. On one level, the project explores a connection between nature and rustic architecture, with light installations, sound art, performances and paintings creating an immersive artistic space in the woods. The nearby castle garden of Schloss Berlepsch offers an expanded terrain for artistic intervention. Sustainability and local procurement are at the heart of the project. Most of the artworks will be created from recycled materials sourced by Becker Recycling and placed poignantly in the hotel and natural surroundings of Robins Nest. These works will dialogue with the unique nature the place offers while also acting as a statement about art production and reception, reflecting on a vision of art that is locally sourced, sustainable and environmentally conscious. The invited artists will collaborate and live together at the Nest for one week. Site-specific artworks, such as installations, field recordings and other pieces will evolve organically in symbiosis with the pre-existing landscape. On another level, the exhibition conceptualizes the transformation of linear economic systems into circular systems. What circular systems arise from the scenario constructed here? There is a conceptual openness to this project, meaning that there is no plot, no storyline, but a background template that artists can choose to work with. The site, the artists and the artworks interlink to examine the complexity of the links between partial processes and overall processes and questions around system correlations. How do sub-processes relate to the overall processes and why is this important for the exhibition’s circular economy?

Maria Hinze