Lachbrunnen

„The well worn steps of a stone stair-case lead down into the dark celler of a former parish house in Wiesbaden Erbenheim. The first perception is a musty odor – a mixture of the smells of a unpleasantly, damp cellar and Indian incense. Then suddenly – light and music! You see in front of you the round, red sandstone walls of a water well with a wooden bucket, hanging from a black-red-gold rope, running over a pully attached to the vaulted ceiling of the cellar. Behind the well is a kind of mural: the upper half is painted, but the lower half is assemblage of objects. Somehow, the overall impression of the painting reminds one of "The Evening Star" by Caspar David Friedrich. However, the objects composing the assamblage come directly from Walt Disney's "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs". And then the music: a small mixed chorus (probably drunken) sing a crazy canon with the text (what is written on the well? I love Fluxus...) "I love Fluxus, I love Fluxus, laugh with me, laugh with me, now we go a swimming, now we go a swimming, glup, glup, glup, glup, glup, glup"! And then finally orchestral music from Gabriel Fauré: Pelléas et Mélisande, Op.80 - Prélude. The visitor moves through the space and sees here and there, various kitsch souvenirs and objects, mounted on the brick walls. In the end, perhaps he sits down on a cushioned, stone bench in a corner of the room to ponder, "What is the meaning of all of this?" Well, if you did not immediately start to laugh when the lights came on and music began, then you will probably never find the answer! („Lachbrunnen“ in English means The Laughing Well)“ - Ben Patterson