It’s no jackets required in the K21 Standehuis museum where they stick it to art protesters in Dusseldorf.
The worry is that the activists will glue themselves to the art installations.
Now I don’t know the science of how unsticking a jacketed person rather than say a jumpered person helps but them’s the rules.
And if it helps divert the activists away from the galleries then all the better.
Acceptable, the Eighties
Now Dusseldorf in North Rhine Westfalen may be known for a range of things, the fashion capital and its Japanese links.
But for this day tripper the jewel in its crown is its former state parliament.
Its museum, the K21 which with two others forms the Kuntsammlung.
And boasts large scale film and video installations in a celebration of post-80s modern art.
Modern life
If you’re more of a fan of earlier 20th century big-hitters such as Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse then nearby K20 is where to go.
And postwar American art includes works by Jackson Pollock and Frank Stella.
And pop artists Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Andy Warhol.
But if it’s immersive, physical art you’re after then the aforementioned K21 that stands out.
In another orbit
The In Orbitinstallation installation by Tomás Saraceno.
And our guides left this, the best for last.
Suspended 25m above the piazza five air-filled spheres constructed of near-transparent steel mesh.
Encompass an area of 2500 square metres.
But enough science, now for the fun.
Visitors can don suits and shoes with suckers on them to enter one of the bubbles
And crawl into them.
Spider’s web
The idea being that we inhabit a spider’s world and movement to strategise our movement.
We, who merely watched, were more like worker bees following our queen who informed us we had to leave.
It felt like being stung but our train back to Essen as part of the German Travel Mart was leaving and we had to be on it.
The K21 Standehuis had been an education and we were happy to compromise.
By cutting short some our enjoyment to queue for our jackets.
All so we could stick it to art protesters in Dusseldorf.
