Verbunden
Immersive art installation fostering human connection
Period
2025 – open end
Format
Oversized arm-shaped cushion & optional mural
Duration
From 6 hours to several days
Material & Space
Surface minimal : 4 x 4 m2. Indoor or outdoor. Wall or ground. Adapted to many kind of surfaces and spaces
Contact & Reservation
- 05.05. - 08.05.2026
- 19.02. - 23.02.2025
Connecting with oneself and others through art
In an increasingly fragmented and digitally overstimulated society, the Verbunden cushions, created by artist and designer Lea Deutschmann, offer a physical and emotional space for reconnection.
Oversized, soft, and padded, these arm-shaped cushions invite you to feel literally held, whether curling up alone, together with someone, or simply playing and relaxing. Their comforting form creates moments of calm and inner freedom, encouraging you to slow down, put your smartphone aside, and reconnect with yourself and others through closeness and presence.
Visitors are invited to let themselves be hugged by the cushions, to curl up in them alone or with others, or simply to rest their heads and absorb the energy of the connected hands surrounding. Through this act of physical interaction and holding one another, a temporary space emerges in which individual burdens are collectively carried.
This art installation was created in response to the crumbling social cohesion, the growing sense of isolation, and the rising shift to the right in our society. The mural represents collective strength through the magic of unity and the connection with oneself and others.
The decision to put away one’s smartphone, a necessary condition for experiencing the art installation, since both hands are needed, becomes a symbolic act of resistance against digital mental load, fragmentation, and loneliness. Verbunden calls for active participation, against passive scrolling on social media and in favour of togetherness.
The installation engages with social and psychological pressures and offers a healing perspective: to reconnect, through art. As an artistic reaction to social fragmentation and isolation, Verbunden unfolds a far-reaching dimension: it addresses the loss of connectedness – with oneself and with others – and counters it with a poetic gesture of closeness.
In times of anger, fear, and uncertainty—spread by hate and division—this installation invites visitors to find support, hope, and strength through a shared experience. The oversized cushions, shaped like arms and up to four meters long, are created to embrace. Visitors are invited to let themselves be hugged by the cushions, to curl up in them alone or with others, or simply to rest their heads and absorb the energy of the connected hands surrounding them.
Verbunden creates space to face negative emotions through empathy, closeness, and shared experience as a creative response. In a time of social tensions, growing tendencies toward division, and the performative pressures of social media, Lea Deutschmann wants to invite visitors to pause and to find their way back to one another.
The artistic installation Verbunden is meant to remind us of the importance of defending our democratic values and rights – by standing together. In challenging times like ours, Verbunden aims to offer hope, courage, and a sense of unity through a shared experience.
Through this work, I aim to evoke a sense of collective strength, the magic of togetherness, and a deep connection with oneself and others. In times marked by anger, fear, and uncertainty — fueled by hate and division — the installation offers support, hope, and strength through a shared experience.
Lea Deutschmann, March 2025
Bring Verbunden to your space!
You can buy the cushions as a private person / company, or rent them for events. The interactive art installation is designed for flexible presentation across different formats and venues.