the double infinity of jump!star: simmering
A monumental rope braided from fabric woven by participants around the world during the Covid-19 lockdown became a ceremonial object and material record of connection across distance and isolation.
The Double Infinity of Jump!Star: Simmering emerged from a collaboration between George Ferrandi and Jump!Star’s Vienna-based creative team—Anna Gaberscik, Bianca Figl, Futurelove Sibanda, Karin Cheng, Mario Sinnhofer (Touched), Melika Ramic, Teresa Distelberger, and Zuzana Ernst. Commissioned by Brunnenpassage to develop the Simmering-based Constellate: Listening Out Loud and Dreaming Wildly and conceived as part of the larger Jump!Star initiative, the collaboration invited artists, researchers, dancers, and community members to deeply investigate listening as a way to heal from the past in order to prepare for the future.
When the Covid-19 pandemic interrupted plans for in-person gatherings and performances, the project transformed into a 28-day online collective ritual. Each day, participants from around the world gathered on Zoom to process the rapidly changing realities of their respective countries. Participants sang with musicians, danced with choreographers, discussed histories of earlier pandemics and systemic racism, and braided fabric from their homes while participating in the sessions.
The braided fragments were mailed to Vienna and joined into a monumental rope arranged in the shape of a double infinity symbol and exhibited at the Welt Museum. Simultaneously sculpture, ceremonial object, and socio-emotional artifact, the rope became a material trace of collective endurance and connection formed across distance and isolation.
Presented by Brunnenpassage and Instituto Internacional de Artivismo during Documenta 15, and later in the United States by the University of Mary Washington Galleries as the set for a multimedia performance, The Double Infinity of Jump!Star: Simmering transformed the fragmented conditions of the pandemic into a unifying structure for shared presence and collective imagination.
