Fluxus 2025 – “Ja, dann ist das so!”

[Lars Schumacher]

Fluxus 2025 – “Ja, dann ist das so!”

In early September 2025, the Kunst & Musik Etage in Hannover became the site of a rare artistic condition: Fluxus 2025 – “Ja, dann ist das so!”, a project that rejected the conventions of exhibition-making and instead embraced the Fluxus ethos of openness, spontaneity, and collective authorship. For two days, the space transformed into a living archive of artistic resistance and renewal — a temporary constellation of gestures, voices, and provocations that unfolded in real time.

At the center of this project stood Lars Schumacher, whose inter­disciplinary practice bridges visual poetry, installation, sound, and participatory action. As initiator and curator, Schumacher shaped Fluxus 2025 not as a retrospective homage but as a contemporary reactivation of Fluxus principles. His approach drew from the conceptual lineage of Yoko Ono, Nam June Paik, and Joseph Beuys, yet remained firmly rooted in present-day urgencies. The title — “Ja, dann ist das so!” — encapsulated his curatorial philosophy: an affirmation of uncertainty, an embrace of the ephemeral, and a recognition of art as lived experience rather than fixed object.

Art as Process, Not Product

Rather than presenting finished works in static arrangement, Fluxus 2025 invited interruption, dialogue, and collective creation. Visitors were not passive viewers but active participants, challenged to intervene, respond, and shape the unfolding situation. More than 180 artists from across the world contributed works that spanned collage, text, performance, sound, and hybrid forms, turning the exhibition into a dynamic archive of artistic resistance and utopian possibility.

Avant‑Garde Lineages and Contemporary Protest

The roster of participating artists reflected a broad spectrum of avant‑garde history and contemporary dissent. Fluxus veterans such as John M. Bennett and David Zack brought decades of experimental poetry and Mail Art practice, while global figures like Ai Weiwei articulated political urgency through conceptual and activist gestures. Artists including Ruud Janssen, Ryosuke Cohen, and Luc Fierens expanded the Mail Art network with visual poetry and socio‑political critique.

Performance and sound artists — Dadanautik, Dame Mailarta, UBU, DS Dadastation21 — activated the absurdist legacy of Dada and Fluxus, transforming it into participatory works that were not simply performed but lived. Devin Cohen and David Greenberger merged language into intimate, resonant encounters.

Collage and mixed media emerged as central modes of expression. Artists such as Angela Caporaso, Christiane Carrè, Cinzia Farina, and Sabine Remy extended the medium into poetic and political dimensions. German positions added further depth: Joachim Buchholz with painterly gestures and layered textures; Stefan Brandstifter with a fusion of visual art, poetry, and performance; Rainer Wieczorek with a literary visual language; Beate Axmann with socially engaged painting; Beate Senf‑Hentsch with autobiographical collage; Annette Behlau with text‑image dialogues; Maks Dannecker with meditative geometric abstraction; Lutz Anders with experimental graphics and visual poetry; and Susanne Schumacher, whose photographic and digital works offered precise reflections on urban dynamics.

A Collective Curatorial Gesture

A defining feature of the exhibition was its invitation to visitors to curate their own selection of works — an interactive act that would shape a subsequent presentation in Berlin. On Sunday afternoon, Susanne Schumacher introduced the Fluxus concept, offering insight into the artistic processes and the idea of Fluxus as a continually evolving practice.

The Kunst & Musik Etage as Resonance Space

The Kunst & Musik Etage Hannover, located on Vahrenwalder Straße 213, provided an ideal setting for this ambitious project. As a hub for contemporary art and musical experimentation, the space fosters dialogue between painting, photography, installation, and sound. Artists such as Ulrich Rainald Hoffmann, Lars Schumacher, and the late Ute Rönnpag‑Lohmeyer have explored themes of acceptance, social reality, and poetic resistance within its walls.

As part of the ZINNOBER Kunstfestival, the Etage contributed to Hannover’s vibrant art scene with works oscillating between abstraction and figuration — colorful, playful, and deeply reflective. Live music performances, including experimental jazz and soul‑pop by the band TIEFBLAU, expanded the multisensory dimension of the event.

A Mirror of the Present

Fluxus 2025 – “Ja, dann ist das so!” was more than an exhibition; it was a mirror of contemporary conditions. Fragmented, participatory, and defiantly open, it honored the Fluxus legacy without succumbing to nostalgia. It invited visitors to linger, to question, and to engage.

Participating Artists

The full constellation of artists contributing to Fluxus 2025 included: John M. Bennett, David Zack, Ai Weiwei, Ruud Janssen, Ryosuke Cohen, Luc Fierens, Dadanautik, Dame Mailarta, UBU, DS Dadastation21, Devin Cohen, David Greenberger, Angela Caporaso, Christiane Carrè, Cinzia Farina, Sabine Remy, Joachim Buchholz, Stefan Brandstifter, Rainer Wieczorek, Beate Axmann, Beate Senf‑Hentsch, Annette Behlau, Maks Dannecker, Lutz Anders, Susanne Schumacher, Ulrich Rainald Hoffmann, Ute Rönnpag‑Lohmeyer, Claudia Wilholt, and more than 180 additional contributors whose works collectively shaped the event’s participatory and intermedia character.

Toward Berlin: Open Tiny Big

The project’s momentum continued beyond Hannover. From 10 to 12 October 2025, the next iteration — Open Tiny Big — was scheduled to unfold at the Open Tiny space in Berlin‑Neukölln, Treptower Straße 84. There, the ethos of openness, process, and resistance would once again take center stage, extending the Fluxus condition into new urban contexts.