How Bees Inspire Us

The exhibition explores the multifaceted relationship between humans, bees and art. Its core is the Cologne-based Kraft collection with works by Joseph Beuys and his contemporaries Michael Buthe, Hede Bühl and Felix Droese. For Beuys, bees and their products stand for energy, nourishment, warmth and a social, collective way of thinking and acting; his installation "Honey Pump at the Workplace" at documenta 1977 is exemplary of this. The show is expanded by contemporary positions, such as Mathias Danberg's sculpture with video hoses, works by Lea Grebe and Maximilian Prüfer on bee mortality and hand pollination in China, as well as pieces by beekeeping artists Jeanette Zippel and Bärbel Rothhaar, and Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg's speculative bee perspectives. An interactive "beehive" with media contributions, photographs and sustainable bee projects provides additional insights into bees, honey and the question of what kind of "nourishment" our society needs today.