Fluxus 2025 – “Ja, dann ist das so!” (“Yes, then that’s how it is!”)

On September 6–7, 2025, the Kunst & Musik Etage Hannover hosted Fluxus 2025 – “Yes, then that’s how it is!”, a two-day international art event that reimagined the exhibition as a participatory, interdisciplinary happening. Curated by artist Lars Schumacher, the project drew inspiration from the radical ethos of the 1960s Fluxus movement, embracing spontaneity, humor, and the breakdown of boundaries between artist and audience. Rather than presenting finished works in static display, the event invited over 180 artists from around the world to contribute collage, text, performance, and hybrid forms—transforming the space into a living archive of artistic resistance and renewal.

Visitors were not passive observers but active participants, encouraged to engage, respond, and even curate their own selection of works. This interactive gesture will shape a future exhibition in Berlin, where selected pieces will be publicly shown. The artist lineup bridged avant-garde history and contemporary experimentation. Fluxus veterans like John M. Bennett and David Zack brought decades of mail art and visual poetry, while global figures such as Ai Weiwei added political urgency through installation and conceptual activism. Artists like Ruud Janssen, Ryosuke Cohen, and Luc Fierens expanded the mail art network with sociopolitical critique and visual poetry.

German artists played a prominent role, offering distinctive approaches to painting and mixed media. Joachim Buchholz combined gestural abstraction with layered textures; Stefan Brandstifter merged visual art with poetic fragments and performance; Rainer Wieczorek contributed a lyrical painterly language rooted in literary influence. Beate Axmann’s socially engaged paintings pulsed with urgency, while Beate Senf-Hentsch explored autobiographical collage. Annette Behlau created poetic dialogues between text and image, and Maks Dannecker’s geometric abstraction offered meditative clarity. Lutz Anders worked at the intersection of collage, visual poetry, and experimental graphics. Susanne Schumacher reflected on urban environments through photography and digital painting, capturing fleeting moments with analytical precision.

On Sunday afternoon, Susanne Schumacher introduced the Fluxus concept and presented the exhibition, offering insight into the artistic processes and the evolving nature of Fluxus as a living practice. At the heart of the event was Lars Schumacher, whose interdisciplinary work spans sound art, visual poetry, and installation. His curatorial approach, influenced by Fluxus pioneers like Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, and Joseph Beuys, emphasized openness, ambiguity, and the ephemeral.

The Kunst & Musik Etage, located at Vahrenwalder Straße 213, provided an ideal setting. Known for its interdisciplinary programming and participation in Hannover’s ZINNOBER art festival, the venue fosters dialogue between painting, photography, installation, and sound. It regularly hosts live music performances, including experimental jazz and soul-pop, and is easily accessible via tram line 1 (Windausstraße stop). Ultimately, Fluxus 2025 – “Yes, then that’s how it is!” was more than an exhibition—it was a mirror of our fragmented, participatory, and open-ended present. It honored the legacy of Fluxus not through nostalgia, but through reinvention, inviting audiences to dwell in the flux.