The exhibition INTERACTIONS 2024 @Bundeskunsthalle Bonn combines three interrelated parachute-based works in the exterior and interior of the building:

The interactive and participatory installation RISE INTO THE VOID allows visitors to rise various parachute objects on the roof within the local wind situation.

The WINDFINDER installation inside shows a resting mode of the hanging parachute objects. The creatures, which once moved wildly in the wind, are reminiscent of oversized insect-like cocoons hanging from the ceiling on long strings. Soft wind noises from inside the objects tell of a past dance with the wind.

This wind dance becomes visible as a projection in the video work TALES OF THE WIND, which is also on display. Subtle movements of textile aerial bodies are traced, repeated, mirrored and multiplied in a poetic and studious manner in order to carefully approach the miraculous mode of wind-based floating.

The video recordings were made during a performative event for the Long Night of Culture in Bremerhaven on the North Sea coast. The sound was created especially for the work by musician Anna Hummen.

Using a parachute-installation, video and sketches, Tomas Kleiner transforms the »Bilker Bunker« into an artistic laboratory. The drawings visualize his approach, which is situated between concept and process, scientific precision and openness to results. They are created spontaneously and serve to design, document or follow-up his works.

The installation “Windfänger” (engl. Windfinder) consists of discarded and reprocessed rescue parachutes, in some of them you can sit. The parachutes have already been through several modes: after beeing carried for ten years as rescue parachutes in the paragliding technology, they floated through the air as moving wind sculptures in Bremerhaven. Now they rest in the former bunker. Their delicate structure forms a gentle contrast to the steel and concrete.

In the »Bilker Bunker«, some of them are like little islands that invite the public to linger inside of them and that shield from the outside world. The parachute-sculptures look like giant cocoons. The own body weight influences how low one will sink into their soft fabric.

Surrounded by urban life, the parachutes become havens of tranquility and provide a sense of security: shelters in the midst of a shelter. Utopian places of longing for lightheartedness.

And perhaps a breeze can still be felt between their soft folds, caught in the wind during their former use. If you listen carefully, you can even hear its gentle rustle.

In his works, Tomas Kleiner creates contact points between organic forms from nature and technical means. This results in sensitive moments of dreaming and astonishment.

Mosses and lichens are living microcosms. As pioneer plants and specific biocoenoses, they form closely interwoven entire ecological systems. Hidden from the naked eye, on closer inspection they reveal intricate universes and highly complex biotopes. What lies behind these seemingly inconspicuous and yet omnipresent, resistant and life-sustaining creatures?

Around 400 million years ago, mosses were the first plants on land to emancipate themselves from the algae in the water. They laid the foundation for flora and fauna on our planet. Preferring to live in humid areas, they also conquer barren mountain and desert regions or even urban spaces between the paving stones. They absorb large quantities of water in a short time and photosynthesise without roots. Frozen, they can outlive their own lifespan, thaw hundreds of years later and live on unharmed.

The artists Tomas Kleiner, Timo Kube, Gabriela Oberkofler, Magali Reus and Helmut Schweizer use installation, sculpture, drawing, writing, photography and film to transform the exhibition spaces into a living ecosystem – microscopically small and universally connecting at the same time.

Kleiners ÆRONAUTS can be encountered here in new formations, this time combining helium-based flying bodies with Louisanna moss, a moss-like species that proves to be an excellent pilot plant. Floating timelessly, the structures are ready to explore unknown utopian habitats and ages, sometimes in large bundles, sometimes in constellations of two or one. Until then, they allow themselves to be blown around by every little breeze. In interaction with the weather and the movements of the visitors, the spatial installation changed from day to day and constantly created new, unpredictable arrangements. 

The exhibition INVOLVED IN GRAVITY shows the cosmos of ideas of artist friends Aurel Dahlgrün and Tomas Kleiner. Both studied at the Düsseldorf Art Academy and, as immediate studio neighbours, are in regular, intensive exchange about their work. This results in joint projects and exhibitions such as this one.

The thematic worlds of both artists revolve around physical phenomena such as gravity and weightlessness. One is addicted to water, the other to air. At the same time, both are concerned with exposing themselves to a specific physical experience and thus simultaneously changing and expanding their own perception.

The unpredictability of the complex medium of ‘wind’ inspires Tomas Kleiner to experiment with floating in the air – sometimes with a paraglider at the highest heights, sometimes with floating aerial objects on the coast, or with performative jumps and drops from towers, bridges and buildings.

Kleiner’s video projection SPRUNG IN DIE LEERE can be seen in the darkened front exhibition space of the gallery. The artist can be seen with a plant in his arms, floating freely in front of a blue sky. A physical exercise for a cross-species escape scenario of humans and plants.

The film material was recorded as part of his exhibition at the Kunstverein Ulm (ON FIRE – permanent emergency, 2023), in which he tested the evacuation practice of jumping into a jumping cushion, which is only used in extreme emergencies – here in the form of a human-plant tandem jump.

The extremely slowed-down high-speed shots and the video editing, which blurs the spatiality, evoke a poetic moment of floating and thus feel the decisive difference between flying and falling, between lightness and heaviness. In this peculiar way, an existential rescue manoeuvre is combined with a poetic dance piece, an emergency scenario with an inter-plant-human pas de deux. An interspecies floating care, or a mutual clinging to each other in a deep fall? Indirectly, this raises questions about the current social situation and how we deal with the various crises.

The installation can be viewed by looking at the torn open ceiling structure of the gallery. The reclining cushion object positioned under the projection, sewn from former rescue parachutes, was specially made by Kleiner for the installation and is intended to invite visitors to lie down on it to watch the video.

Kleiners works, which involve various organisms and natural forces as collaborators, are based on a question that has driven the artist for several years. Under the heading of ‘plant flexibilisation’, he devotes himself to the following problem with a pronounced sense of equal treatment and handling: Why should humans be able to flee and migrate from threatening, self-inflicted environmental changes, but not other living beings? The artist therefore also makes the technical aids of humans available to other actors such as mosses, sponges, water lilies and potatoes.

In the brightly lit rear exhibition space, the works of both artists overlap and overlay each other. Floating ‘aeronauts’ equipped with living plant material glide – in packs or as loners – driven by the movement of the visitors through the brightly lit room, past images of dancing air bubbles in still water, passing prints of unfamiliar icy water landscapes, passing seemingly old and at the same time highly topical NASA images of the earth floating in empty space.

The selection of works for the NEW POSITIONS follows and continues the open research project “Artenübergreifenden Flugübungen”, which was last shown in the “1,5 GRAD” exhibition at the Kunsthalle Mannheim.

The works shown here, such as “[’fffhhhh]”, “Sprung in die Leere”, “Æronaut”, “Luftlinien”, “Streliziendrachen” and “Flugkartoffel”, thematise the complex air movements and the associated flight practices of plants. Botanical observations, bionic experiments and meteorological inspirations thus lead to experimental arrangements, images and objects that are linked by the mode of the directionless ecosystemic state of suspension.

The ‘Luftlinien (air lines)’ exhibited here for the first time show Kleiner’s graphic exploration of the omnipresent weather ghosts. The areas of high and low pressure, which we have given individual names and which are visualised by means of isobaric lines, show the constant movement of the air-based, barely tangible entities. Kleiner approaches these ephemeral creatures with sensitive and precise woodcuts and portrays them in a concretely tangible snapshot. The time and spatial area are indicated on the back of the picture.

This results in printing blocks covered in varnish and pigment, which Kleiner engraves by hand, carves, coats with a glaze and carefully transforms into atmospheric, cartographic images.

‘MEIN KÖRPER IST MOOR, MÜNDUNG, ÖKOSYSTEM …’ explores the relationship between humans and nature.

Inspired by Astrida Neimanis’ essay “Hydrofeminism: Or, On Becoming a Body of Water”, the show explores the connections between humans and ecology and invites visitors to take a fresh look at their relationship with nature. It is the first exhibition conceived by the new management duo of the Städtische Galerie Fruchthalle, Joanne Rodriguez and Jan Philipp Nühlen.

The works of artist Riikka Tauriainen (*1979 in Finland) and artist Tomas Kleiner (*1990 in Sweden) combine the themes of body and water, region and ecosystems as well as microorganisms. Works from the Rastatt Collection – including works by Otto Dix and other artists – complement and deepen the theme.

Kleiner is showing a combination of existing works (such as “performative studio – interspecies flight exercises“, “Windfinder” and “Æronauts”), new variations (like „TALES OF THE WIND“ and „Parachute Potatoes“) and completely new works like „HIDE AND SEEK“.

The last one is the collaborative work by Tomas Kleiner and a hedgehog. It shows how the hedgehog and Kleiner spent various summers together in their shared garden, observing each other curiously, sleeping next to the compost, strolling through the bushes and reading stories together.

The exhibition ‘My body is moor, estuary, ecosystem…’ raises important questions about alternative visions for dealing with nature and promotes equal coexistence.

In season 2024/2025, the Papageno Musiktheater am Palmengarten in Frankfurt am Main presents a fresh take of the mysterious Wizard of Oz.

The scenery production by Tomas Kleiner uses secondhand textiles, lightweight materials recycled from aviation technology, and elements like light projections, glowing objects, wind, and fog machines. Together, these create a unique stage design that is both visually striking and atmospheric.

The combination of performance and installation art brings a new depth to this classic story, offering an imaginative experience for audiences of all ages.

Directors: Niklas & Hans-Dieter Maienschein
Stage design: Tomas Kleiner
Costume: Stefan Kohler
Musical direction: Svetlana Granovska
Technology: Johannes Grübl