BONN.- From March 2017, visitors to Kunstmuseum Bonn can expect to enjoy an unusual experience in which they are separated from the tangible world by wearing headphones and sightless goggles. In the first stage the visitors are led through the exhibition spaces by text messages sent to their provided cell phones from an unknown sender called “the Collector”. Thus, they get to know the exhibited works ranging from paintings by Max Ernst – a pioneer of painted virtual worlds – to a contemporary series of maps by Stephan Huber in an entirely new way.

The exhibition New Originals by Swedish artist duo Lundahl & Seitl is a complex installation with an interactive multi-sensory audio walk at its core. In their work, the two artists Christer Lundahl (*1978) and Martina Seitl (*1979) discuss fundamental questions of cognitive science: How are images produced in our brain and how do we remember them? How “real” are our constructed memories and how easily can perception be controlled and manipulated?

After finding the entrance to a hidden corridor in the exhibition, the visitors enter stage two, which does not involve any physical objects. Guided by the voice of “the Collector” as well as external stimuli in the form of synchronized light and three-dimensional sound, the visitors are encouraged to recollect previously viewed artworks and recreate them inside their minds. In this virtual space of possibilities, we have to make use of all our senses and our sensitivity, and, most of all, learn not to only trust our eyes. The artists invite us to reflect on the origin of artworks and the development of memories in broader terms: What role does our established notion of the ”original” and the “copy” play when an artwork unfolds directly in the visitors’ consciousness?

With New Originals , Kunstmuseum Bonn is taking a new approach in its current exhibition practice. The exhibition does not only put to question the term of the "original" by creating an exciting and at times paradoxical dialog between selected works from the museum's collection and edited copies of them, but also by interpreting anew the medium of the exhibition and the visitors’ role in it beyond defined museum standards.

The exhibition is accompanied by a richly illustrated catalogue with essays by Ronald Jones, Sally Müller and Johan Pousette.

The novella The Jellyfish Trap , written by Alex Backstrom for the exhibition New Originals , is available online or in printed form at the museum’s reception desk. The museum recommends reading the novella before visiting the exhibition.