Carefully, as in a cultic act, the two young women unroll a length of fabric on the floor.

The rest of us wait a little nervously in front of the carpeted area to see what happens next.

Nobody says anything.

The bright ceiling lamps put the white cube of the Kunsthalle Mainz, in whose exhibition “Eins Komma Fünf” we are, in a glistening light.

Everyone who participates here will be exhibited on this stage right now.

A strange feeling.

Katharina Deschka

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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The two women have unfolded the fabric into a long strip and are now dividing it again, so that a square of approximately four by four meters of fabric is created.

We position ourselves at the corners.

“Get into the loops from above,” says one of the young women, the guide.

It's very easy, and when the four of us now form a square, connected to one another only by a piece of fabric, in which we lean backwards to build up tension, the whole wonder of Franz Erhard Walther's artistic idea suddenly reveals itself : that we, now included as viewers, allow a work to emerge in the first place.

That we establish a connection to one another in a way that rarely happens among strangers.

"Caution", "Oops"

"Four body weights" is the name of the object of the "1. Work set ”that we are currently“ activating ”. A set of works that was as ingenious as it was spectacular when the artist, born in Fulda in 1939, came up with it between 1963 and 1969. He developed 58 objects out of fabrics and other materials such as wood, metal, leather, plastic and foam. And for each object Walther gave instructions on how it should be used, for example whether one should crawl into a fabric, pull it over or look through it. Walther was one of the first to turn viewers into actors - and deliver them to intense interpersonal experiences. In 2017 he was awarded the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale.

His art is still extremely exciting, as we experience firsthand. In our square, our leaning back bodies tighten the fabric with their weight. But then my neighbor takes a tiny step to the left and we are all immediately unbalanced. “Careful!” Someone calls out. "Oops," says the polluter. Even the smallest movement is noticeable, because if one changes his position, it has a direct impact on the balance of the other. Proximity and distance must be balanced continuously.

But how much closeness to others is appropriate, beneficial, necessary - and when does it become uncomfortable?

This can be tried out well with the Activations from Walther, because there is an exercise (“For two”), for example, where you stand very close to each other and have to endure this closeness.

Or then another one (“Über Arm”), both of which are lying on their stomachs and stretching one hand towards each other, but are a few meters away from each other.