Resusci Anne, also known as Rescue Anne, is an emergency test subject. The Norwegian toy maker Asmund Laerdal, Norwegian anesthesiologist Bjorn Lind, and the Austrian-Czech physician Peter Safar developed the resuscitation doll in 1960. Now, the German artist Thomas Zipp has declared the dummy the central protagonist of his current exhibition, “A Psychophysical Basis for Utilitarian Comparisons.” Here, he stages the plastic figures within his two large installations—a kitchen and a dormitory with beds in which the dolls are resting. Classroom chairs are arranged in neat rows, a band’s musical equipment, and art on the walls accessorize the premises.

At the opening, the sets came to life through a performance with live sound. Zipp—who has been labeled a “psychonaut” of art and who began his career as a musician—had the uncanny dolls, whose faces are based on the death mask of the so-called unknown woman of the Seine, moved by actors in white jumpsuits and white balaclavas. That night, one saw the dolls cook and eat, and finally, one of the workers laid them to rest.

This is not the first time that Zipp has transformed an art space into a laboratory for psychophysical investigations—one that recalls a hybrid of a hospital, a school and a mental asylum. In the 2013 Venice Biennial and in the 2010 solo exhibition “Mens Sana in Corpore Sano” in the Fridericianum in Kassel, Zipp devised extensive installations that were supposed to make a contribution to research into the psyche. Also, this show further pursues his interest in psychological writings and the alleged achievements of modernity. The claim made by Zipp’s exhibition title admittedly strains the boundaries of art and science.

Translated from German by Diana Reese.

— Angela Stief