The outlines of a glowing, bright pink pillow and duvet swing vividly across the barn wall of Kunstverein Springhornhof. On the front door of the institution is a huge reverse glass painting of an open book.
Verena Issel’s installation What I Never Thought (Survey-Based Neon Bed) is based on a survey of the residents of the village where the institution is located. Some of the answers, such as “my son’s smelly little friends,” “fruitless meetings,” “grandchildren who suck the air out of you,” can now be read on the door of the institution. The former village priest misses “washing the bed linen after the visitors have gone, after ­spending the nights talking instead of sleeping.” This provided the motif for the neon bed linen, which is best experienced during a stroll at dusk. “Of course, during a lockdown you long for parties with lots of people, going out to restaurants, travelling long distances—but you also miss a lot of things that you never thought you would miss,” Verena Issel writes about her installation.
“… maybe it’s a nice idea to take these thoughts with us, as an appreciation of the small and big things that we have always taken for granted, that were a normal part of everyday life and now seem so special, distant and exotic.”

☐ Bettina von Dziembowski, exhibition text (excerpt)