german version

 

 

 

 

 

Art for Animals

 

This year the Zoological Garden Halle celebrates its 110th birthday and hence belongs to a generation of animal parks founded in the second half of the 19th century in many German middle-class cities. The main intention of these parks was to make the diversity of life on earth accessible to a broader public, and to offset the exclusive nature of medieval menageries. This can also be seen in Halle Mountain Zoo, which comprises a vivarium erected in the early years of the zoo's existence along with modern compounds appropriate in each case to the animals housed there to form an interesting record of the history of this zoo.

 

The basic idea for the exhibition "Art for Animals" arose from questioning the traditional visit to the zoo along with the usual role allocation between humans and animals. Using artistic interventions eight artists attempt to change this relationship systematically and to strip the visitors of their role as passive observers. Guest artists from Halle and abroad were invited to make this attempt. The result can be seen in eight works of art to be shown throughout the zoo grounds from 15 to 23 October 2011.

 

The approach used concerns the question whether animals perceive art as art, but at the same time also questions the nature of the one-sided human perception of the animal world. Of course it is speculation whether something like aesthetic sensibility really exists in animals, on the other hand the limited possibilities of describing our own perception of art is in the final analysis governed by similar laws. If we take the title literally we confront the animals with something that normally is only defined by human beings as art.

 

As an important component of the zoo the animals live in artificial surroundings and in this limitation to their "animalness" are a priori objects of human culture. With their "Art for Animals" the artists free the animal from its role as an object and make the object of the exhibition the actual subject of the artistic perception. The artistic activity receives in this way an unusual perspective because the usual recipient is now the onlooker. However it is impossible to imagine that the animals can express their experience of art in words. At the same time art in a certain way also marks the limits of human culture because art cannot be easily reduced to a single concept – even by those who are linguistically talented. Zoo visitors will share this experience of limitations with the animals.

 

In the course of their comprehensive research the artists questioned behaviour biologists and also the zoo staff. The exhibition "Art for Animals" is offered for a limited time, with work from Hagen Bäcker, Brian Catling and David Tolley, Lune Léoty, Wolfgang Müller, Thomas Rabisch, Bernhard Schipper, Veronika Schneider and Ralf Wendt.

 

Hagen Bäcker, Thomas Rabisch and Ralf Wendt

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

LUNE LÉOTY  HAGEN BÄCKER  RALF WENDT  WOLFGANG MÜLLER BRIAN CATLING & DAVID TOLLEY  BERNHARD SCHIPPER  VERONIKA SCHNEIDER  THOMAS RABISCH

 

 

MAP OF ZOO HALLE

 

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