The door should be open all day, says Asad Raza.

That is important to him, including that daylight falls directly into the hall.

And indeed, even before the actual opening, the first passers-by snowed on the Old Bridge into the Portikus exhibition hall.

Which would already prove one thing: water attracts us involuntarily.

Especially when suddenly a metre-wide stream crosses an art site.

And nothing else can be seen.

Or not much.

tubes, a pumping system.

The whole room, including the artificial stream bed, is lined with stone foil from the hardware store, which only gets a certain visual appeal through the sheer quantity.

Eva Maria Magel

Senior cultural editor of the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Nature looks different, but nature really isn't, and Raza doesn't want to imitate it either.

It is a decidedly approachable art that he is bringing to Frankfurt with “Diversion” for a simple exhibition that is perfectly suited to the summer.

One where you can bathe your feet, cool your hands and listen to the sound of the water trickling through the portico and disappearing into the floor with a considerable rush through two metal drains.

"Diversion" should definitely be used.

The mediators, who are always present during opening hours and are students from the Städelschule and other universities, will ensure that Frankfurters looking for a cool place don’t get carried away when splashing around.

"It's better than drinking water"

The atmosphere doesn't invite jokes either, rather a quiet, joyful moment as you follow the small watercourse and feel it.

And to think about this place, the water, the river and the city you live in or are visiting.

For years, Raza, who was born in Buffalo in 1974, studied in New York and lives in Berlin, has been creating interactions between people and the environment, inviting participation and intervention, direct, even haptic contact.

Last year he showed "Absorption" for Urbane Künste Ruhr parallel to the Ruhrtriennale, a work that could be experienced in different versions at art festivals: With a crowd of helpers, new earth is created from garbage and sand in the course of the art event in a carefully designed room and given away.

He is looking for something suitable for every place where he works, says Raza, possibly a "recipe" or a cure, he says and smiles.

Maybe that came from his parents, who were both doctors.

He had had the idea of ​​diverting the water for some time, but only now, with the Portikus, has he found the right place: an art house on an island.

And with Carina Bukuts and Liberty Adrien, whom he already knew and who are introducing themselves with this exhibition as the new curators of Portikus, the right partners for the project.

The two have decided to interact with the city and its residents, to invite, to signal openness.

Which is why there are hand-printed posters for the Portikus in the Städelschule for the first time, each one unique, and why the first art newspaper has been distributed with texts, pictures and riddles on water, art and people, even with Raza's favorite recipe for mussel soup.

There is a pile in the basement to take away or to read right there.

A small table, a seat and the sound of the water are waiting for the visitors, where you can see how the part of the Main that Raza diverted with his pumping system flows back into the river bed.

But a small part remains behind: With a filter, kettle and drinking vessel, Raza invites you to literally assimilate the Main.

The small drinking station is monitored daily, and a hydrologist explained to the artist how the river water has to be treated.

"It's better than drinking water," says Raza.

Adepts of St. Hildegard and esotericism will be pleased that he added a few stones to the water tank "for mineralization".

But it doesn't matter, the "mineralized" water does indeed taste, Main or Main, like - water.

So everyone can become part of the "diversion", the river goes home with us.

Diversion Portikus Frankfurt, Maininsel/Alte Brücke, until September 25, Tuesday to Friday from 12 to 7 p.m., Saturday and Sunday from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m.