Habitat - Miriam Jonas & Andreas Greiner

About

As the first exhibition within the thematic frame of “Architecture of Segregation”, HABITAT seeks to undermine these boundaries by means of two different artistic strategies that create new space for interpretation and experience.

Miriam Jonas, whose works often move between the poles of perfect surfaces and their immanent, covered uncanny effects, overlays the bear cages with a new layer of material. Hybrid visual references form a scenario in which an anthropomorphisation is taken literally and the formal species-neutrality of the prison architecture becomes tangible. What is the effect of an optimisation of the conditions within the cages while maintaining functionality?

The examination of growth, identity and transformation of living beings are central to Andreas Greiner's artistic practice. Inside the Bärenzwinger, bioluminescent algae find their habitat within the architectural limitations of a sculpture. Their glow in a dark room mentally leads us back to the origins of all life. In the outdoor enclosures, a biotope for algae is forming – a project with architect Ivy Lee Fiebig, who, living on-site, enters into a symbiosis with the algal bloom in the creation of a biological cycle. While algae already provide new solutions within the fields of industry and research, Fiebig herself is working on modular designs for living architecture.