MODEN:Start/EXHIBITIONS/domestikation: Difference between revisions

In order to balance the scientific presentation of information and artifacts in the showcases, we felt the need to devise and design a number of scenic installations that allowed for a more emotional access to the topic and that were also a possibility to use artistic means to investigate the cultural implications and "epiphenomena" of domestication. Even if we wanted them to appear very different from the showcase displays, we still wanted to use an aesthetic derived from those of natural history collections with their regard for morphological comparison and emphasis on (natural) diversity. The four installations were created as rather rough appearing wooden walls emphasizing the idea of a village square with adjacent cottage or barnyard buildings. The four topics were

[[File:felixsattler_domestikation_02.jpg|thumb|right|300px|Elisabeth Kaufmann & Felix Sattler: Kalkül und Leidenschaft I: Dressur]][[File:felixsattler_domestikation_03.jpg|thumb|right|300px|detailed view of the dog leashes and collars]]

''Dressage'' features a collection of dog leashes. We tend to regard those first as a practical tool to carry out human power over animals. To us, it was even more important that they publicly visualize a distinct "channel" between human and animal. The diversity of available leashes on the market displays much of the emotional quality of human-animal relationships as well as the real or intended social status of each "pair" or "couple". Furthermore, dressage is always about creating an anthropomorphic animal, which is probably most convincingly pointed out in the genre of comic films featuring animal protagonists. We felt the need to show that there is also a cultural technique reversing this making of the anthropomorphic animal: As in certain sex practices, humans sometimes also tend to "play animal", which is why we added a leash from the stock of a sex toys manufacturer to the display.