Florian Gass and Mirja Reuter are artists and art mediators. Their works focuse on thematic areas that are critical of society. Since 2010 they have been developing collaborative projects rooted in socially engaged art. Their artistic practice includes participatory projects, mostly with children and young people in various contexts. They develop a critical production of knowledge and work on collaborative narratives and staging methods to create unusual approaches to social issues. The reception and production aspects of art education and mediation are considered together as an active and collaborative process that aims to achieve an artistic approach. Since 2014, Florian Gass and Mirja Reuter have been developing projects for the Lenbachhaus.

For ‘Hello, my name is Kunstbau.’ they developed a research station.
It is an archive that gathers a lot of information about the artworks in the collection. It also shows works by children that have been created for the museum in various Reuter-Gass projects over the past ten years. The research station is also an open workspace. Visitors can research works from the collection, pose their own questions to the museum, watch films, and play theatre - behind a wall of shadows or with stick figures on the stage. Visitors can add their research results to the archive.

The station is Structured in various modules:

Information on the works of art in the collection was compiled in the form of an archive, in collaboration with the Lenbachhaus collection archive.

Under what circumstances were these works created? How did they come to be in the Lenbachhaus collection?
Children and young people have explored these and other questions relating to the museum in a variety of approaches. These discourses are also part of the archive. The information is accessible in the form of videos, audio clips and large index cards. These materials are supposed to encourage visitors to formulate their own questions regarding the works and the collection. Visitors are invited to present their findings and engage in a dialogue about their contributions.

The project “Kunsthörspiel und Hörspielkunst” is an audio guide created by children and young people. The children, together with Reuter-Gass and children’s artbook author Susanna Partsch, researched the stories behind the artworks in the museum. They processed their own research and ideas into narratives and script texts and recorded them together with professional radio producers and speakers. A total of 26 audio pieces have been produced so far, which can be listened to. (In German language)

The Puppet theater stage refers to the large mobile theater, which Reuter-Gass have been setting up every summer in Lenbachhaus’ garden for the past ten years. In the school and summer vacation program “Aus dem Rahmen gefallen… und auf der Bühne gelandet” (Translation: Fell out the frame… and landed on stage.), the theater as a ‘collective narrative machine’ opens up new perspectives on the artworks in the current exhibitions and the permanent collection. Through dialogical work and conception, the participants create a common narrative, which they stage within a few hours and present on stage. The stage here in Kunstbau is open to everyone to tell their stories. There are stick figures and backdrops that everyone can use to bring their own stories to the stage.

At the shadow wall, you can use objects to create unique collections. Shadows can grow and shrink, be threatening or funny, they can transform and disappear. As living shadows we can interact with objects on the screen ourselves. Everyone is invited to step behind the shadow wall, change the arrangements and create their own stories.