Helping out is a socially engaged, arts-based research project in which artistic authorship is deconstructed through the artist’s need for assistance in the creation of the works.

At the opening, the exhibition space is empty. One by one, fragile, large-scale wax objects are cast and lifted from a water bath together with the visitors. The placement of the objects in the space, as well as the documentation of the process, becomes a collaborative effort.
As the evening progresses, the casting of the exhibition pieces is gradually handed over to the visitors. At the opening at DAS ZIMMER gallery in February 2025, more than twenty objects were created. The visitors then voted on which of the collaboratively produced objects would be cast in bronze through a complex process.
In addition to the processual nature of the work, a second central aspect is the absence of explicit authorship of the resulting sculpture. Helping out is designed so that collective action remains at the center until the final object is completed. In the case of the final bronze sculpture, we genuinely do not know who made it.

CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND

In a time marked by individualization, performance pressure, and social fragmentation, collective action gains particular significance. The project Helping out serves as a prime example of how collective processes can create not only art but also social spaces—spaces in which people come together, take responsibility, and generate meaning collaboratively.

Within Helping out, the classical notion of authorship is called into question—in favor of a model in which the artwork emerges as the result of an open, help-based collaboration. Visitors are not merely observers, but co-creators. In this way, not only an aesthetic, but also a social space of experience is opened.

The political theorist Hannah Arendt described action as one of the three fundamental activities of human life—alongside labor and work. For her, action is the only activity in which people encounter one another in their full plurality, reveal themselves, and shape a shared world. It is dialogical, unpredictable, and presupposes freedom (Vita Activa, 1960). Collective action creates public space, meaning, and social cohesion—things that seem more important than ever in today’s polarized times.

Helping out brings this understanding into concrete form: The work is not the product of an isolated genius but an expression of shared action. It embodies a kind of togetherness that transcends individual attributions and egos. This approach shows that societal processes can be imagined and practiced differently: more solidaric, participatory, and community-oriented.