Animal Best Friends: About Pets and their People

Room 1

Our exhi­bi­tion scenog­ra­phy trans­lates this spe­cial friend­ship into three large the­mat­ic spaces with three dif­fer­ent design approach­es. Themes of wilder­ness and domes­tic­i­ty jux­ta­pose spec­tac­u­lar­ly. A gigan­tic rock emerges from an over­sized car­pet of ani­mal tracks — a syn­onym for habi­tat. It sym­bol­izes the ter­rar­i­ums and cages in which we keep our pets and also a sign of their place of ori­gin, the wilder­ness, so to speak, from which the pets originate.

As one moves through the exhi­bi­tion space, facil­i­tat­ed by the panoram­i­cal­ly arranged exhi­bi­tion texts and exhibits on the walls sur­round­ing the rock, many dif­fer­ent sym­bols are revealed that were pre­vi­ous­ly hid­den in the artis­tic installation.

Room 2

Ani­mal sil­hou­ettes in pos­i­tive and neg­a­tive forms guide vis­i­tors through the next room, tak­ing them on an emo­tion­al jour­ney that reflects the human per­cep­tion of ani­mals over humans. The large sil­hou­ette walls struc­ture the space, hold­ing the het­ero­ge­neous exhibits in place and form­ing small­er cab­i­nets. The strong col­or scheme draws vis­i­tors into the depths. The bright col­ors — red, blue, and vio­let — cre­ate a shim­mer­ing effect, sig­nal­ing vital­i­ty, joy, and strong emo­tion­al­i­ty, but also diver­si­ty and change. Artis­ti­cal­ly, the space thus cre­ates an emo­tion­al interplay.

Room 3

Final­ly, the major shift in per­spec­tive: The aquar­i­um, the cage, and the home from the ani­mals’ per­spec­tive! Vis­i­tors are scaled to ani­mal size thanks to over­sized cages in the cen­ter of the room. They stand in a pho­to­re­al­is­tic bird­cage and expe­ri­ence their envi­ron­ment like a budgie. They enter an aquar­i­um, look through vir­tu­al real­i­ty glass­es, and see how a fish per­ceives its sur­round­ings, while vis­i­tors out­side the cage tap on the aquar­i­um glass. Anoth­er room describes peo­ple who live equal­ly with rab­bits and have adapt­ed their homes to their pet’s needs. It’s not always beau­ti­ful, sweet, and cud­dly, but often also inap­pro­pri­ate, dull, and bru­tal. It address­es eth­i­cal ques­tions: Are we allowed and can we actu­al­ly keep ani­mals? What rights do ani­mals have? How equal are they, exact­ly? The reduc­tion of the scenog­ra­phy enhances the great­est pos­si­ble inter­ac­tion between vis­i­tors, cre­at­ing a par­tic­i­pa­to­ry process. The peo­ple in the cages are observed, observe each oth­er, observe the oth­er vis­i­tors and reflect on their atti­tudes towards clas­sic role mod­els – humans as own­ers and pets as prop­er­ty. Things aren’t always nice, sweet and cud­dly, but often also inap­pro­pri­ate, dull and brutal.

Room 4

The final room rad­i­cal­ly breaks with tra­di­tion­al role mod­els — humans as own­ers and pets as prop­er­ty — as vis­i­tors are sub­ject­ed to a con­stant shift in per­spec­tive. Con­tem­po­rary art­works frame the cage exhib­it and offer space to reflect on their expe­ri­ences through artis­tic works.

The exhi­bi­tion is aimed at all age groups, but also fea­tures a par­al­lel, inter­ac­tive chil­dren’s trail, which is super­vised and accom­pa­nied by a sep­a­rate book­let. The chil­dren learn about the char­ac­ter­is­tics, needs, and care of ani­mals, con­stant­ly review­ing deci­sions they make using questionnaires.

There are numer­ous sta­tions – mul­ti­sen­so­ry, media-based, active, and inter­ac­tive (AR and VR appli­ca­tions) – designed to appeal to all vis­i­tors. Par­tic­i­pa­to­ry process­es were suc­cess­ful­ly incor­po­rat­ed into the devel­op­ment of the exhi­bi­tion con­cept, which makes sim­u­lat­ing and under­stand­ing research aspects and sci­en­tif­ic stud­ies an impor­tant ped­a­gog­i­cal theme. The shift in per­spec­tive from pet to human is also a trans­for­ma­tive edu­ca­tion­al approach. This achieved a wide vari­ety of media units, art­works, and sci­en­tif­ic exhibits, all from a mul­ti-per­spec­tive perspective.