Just under a kilometer from the European Central Bank is the Montez family art association in the listed round arches of the Honsell Bridge.

With an exhibition area of ​​more than a thousand square meters, the association offers a retreat for the independent art scene.

Anyone passing the floor-to-ceiling windows of the Kunsthalle on a Sunday morning is often taken aback.

"Feel your heartbeat.

Breathe in and out,” a woman’s voice sounds from the room.

The participants stand on all fours with outstretched legs on colorful rubber mats in front of abstract paintings.

They have gathered in the exhibition rooms to end their week with yoga.

Every Sunday, the premises under the bridge are transformed into a joint yoga meeting place.

Jonas Ungermann, organizer of the "Yoga Montez" event, tries to make the exhibition space as harmonious as possible.

Sometimes the participants are surrounded by huge sculptures, sometimes by more delicate works.

You could literally see through some of the exhibits and thus establish a connection with your neighbors.

Become a sculpture yourself

“An energy field simply arises, a synergy between the individual participants, the work and the teacher, of course, who, as the main resonance body, gives shape to this entire yoga level,” says Ungermann.

On an Easter Sunday in 2017, he organized the joint sun salutation at the Kunstverein for the first time.

The concept came about through his personal passion for yoga.

"Especially in difficult times, yoga was a good lifeline for me," he says.

Again and again he raved about his yoga experiences to Mirek Macke, the artistic director of the Kunstverein, until he asked him if he didn't even want to make an event out of it.

Together with the association “Resonance Body”, Ungermann finally got his concept off the ground.

Under the slogan "Art in Movement", the participants resonated with the artistic arrangement and the positions in the space during the courses.

“The poses, the so-called asanas, are like a kind of moving sculpture.

In the broadest sense, the visitors become a part of the whole,” says Ungermann.

Although the courses are not consciously adapted to the ever-changing exhibitions, yoga can subconsciously expand the visitors' senses for the exhibits.

"The fact that you then perceive art in a completely different way is one aspect of the whole thing that makes it exciting," says Ungermann.

The current exhibitions are communicated in the newsletter.

Entrepreneurs next to students

While yoga on Sunday morning should help to end the week on a good note, courses on Monday evening should now ensure that you start the new week with fresh and clear energy.

On Mondays, breathing exercises, cocoa ceremonies, ecstatic dance and other practices are offered that are far from what is understood by yoga in the classic sense.

For Ungermann, yoga is the perfect compensation in a fast-moving city like Frankfurt.

"It's a city that already has quite a strong appeal to the outside world," he says.

Ungermann sees the fact that yoga now seems to flow seamlessly into the everyday life of city dwellers and has emerged from its former niche existence as a sign of a time characterized by hectic activity and permanent stress factors.

“One notices in the companies that in a certain way a new awareness is emerging.

It's also about decelerating.” Yoga teacher Nadine Gerhardt also shares this opinion.

Among other things, she gives courses in the art association of the Montez family, but has also given lessons on the Museumsufer, on the roof terrace of the Citybeach meeting point and in Holzhausenpark.

"Before, yoga only took place in the studio," she recalls.

The sessions in public also brought in people who had previously had no contact with yoga.

On the mats, the entrepreneur in a management position did his exercises next to the student, who could not afford a normal lesson, she recalls.

During an event on the museum bank, a homeless person also became aware of their course.

He stood in the last row and took part without a mat.

"I finally went to him and touched his forehead," says Gerhardt.

The man was initially irritated by this gesture, she recalls, but later thanked her and from then on came regularly.

Every year, many homeless people would have been able to take part in their lessons free of charge.

Since 2018, Gerhardt has no longer been able to offer yoga in such places.

Commercial activities in green spaces can no longer be offered without permission.

Gerhardt regrets this step: The citizens of a driven city are looking for a balance.

Around 250 participants showed up for one of their lessons on the museum bank.

The energy in the city was special at the time: comparable to flying.