On a purple foundation

Editor Nicole Seipp-Isele

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Lynne Gbodjrou Kouassi not only colours the floor at the Helmhaus, she also shifts norms, power relations and perceptions.

The floor is purple – and it will remain purple. A simple statement, yet a work of art at the same time. The exhibition "salbung" uses this colour as the foundation on which all installations rest. By painting the floor under the title "Grund" (Ground), Kouassi shows how much the white floor of the Helmhaus has been taken for granted as the unquestioned norm.

Central to the exhibition is the "floor colour agreement" between the artist and the museum, displayed in the first room. It stipulates that the floor must remain purple beyond the duration of the exhibition – unless there is a change in management or a cultural-political intervention. And even then, the original RAL colour cannot simply be restored. Purple stands for spirituality, power and dominion, and here it becomes an element that subtly makes the visitors themselves part of the art.

Crocheted history

In "witches' study lounge", visitors physically approach the floor. Large crocheted figures invite them to linger and read. The beanbags are based on the 30,000-year-old Venus of Willendorf – Kouassi actually found crochet instructions for them on the internet. Anyone who takes a seat can feel the material and weight. The boundary between viewer and art becomes blurred as the floor beneath your feet and the figures allow you to experience the physical dimension of art.

At first, it seems a little strange to hear the sounds of giant West African snails, the pets of Kouassi and her husband, the artist Daniel Vollmond, coming from a house-like glass box. This is also because the tape recordings are more reminiscent of the sound of a woodpecker when the animals touch the glass box with their enormous shells. And one wonders whether the liaison between the gable and the panorama of the Fraumünster bell tower is intentional or coincidental. Be that as it may, the snails are fitting for "salbung" (anointing), as they embalm the ground as they move and because there are popular creams made from snail slime. Kouassi also has a penchant for the colour yellow. In the installation "w:hole milk", nine nuns' dresses in different shades of yellow hang from a yellow thread. Once again, the viewing experience is inclusive: visitors are invited to find their own personal shade of yellow. The artist can be seen in a portrait photograph, wearing a robe in her ideal shade of yellow. Nun's habits are highly regulated in terms of colour and cut. At the same time, for a long time, becoming a nun was a way of emancipating oneself from men and living independently. Kouassi plays with this paradox in this installation. The interplay of all the works makes it clear that "salbung" is less a sequence of individual installations than a precisely crafted design of the space itself. The floor, the colours, the materials and the arrangements intertwine, transforming the Helmhaus into a place of conscious perception.