Baby seal holds the fort for "Antje
25 August 2020
Photo: Holger Schmidhuber © VG Bild Bonn
Helga and Holger Schmidhuber have created a representative position on "Antje's" pedestal with their multidimensional installation "Holding the Fort". It can be seen in the Zoological Museum until March 2021 - here in front of "Antje's" polar sea.
"Antje" goes on a journey. The city-famous lady walrus is moving temporarily to the Kunsthalle. Here she can be seen from September 4 as the center of an artistic position in the exhibition "The Absurd Beauty of Space". Artists Helga and Holger Schmidhuber have arranged for a replacement at the Zoological Museum: an unusual baby seal is holding down the fort for the next six months - as part of an artistic installation.
For Helga Schmidhuber, art and nature are directly connected. Perhaps because she "comes from the forest" as she says and has studied and painted nature all her life. Animals are at the center of her works, they "find the canvas". In the process, her associative works repeatedly leave the frame and, as in "Antje," reach into the space. While the walrus in the Kunsthalle will watch over endemic species as the guardian of an ark, species protection resonates here, climate change there. The multiple award-winning artist uses a large experimental field in which she also repeatedly raises symbolic signal flags - as here for the preservation of nature.
When Helga Schmidhuber was asked by Kunsthalle director Alexander Klar to create an installation for the exhibition "The Absurd Beauty of Space," the ark was quickly decided upon as the theme after several trips through port cities. However, not as an escape boat for farm animals, but for those that Helga Schmidhuber would take with her on a rescue trip of this kind. There would also be the pangolin and the bat, the field hamster and the mink. As objects, they will become part of the installation, while other species will cavort on paintings.
Curator Alexander Klar brought "Antje" and the Zoological Museum into play. "I still know Antje from television," recalls Helga Schmidhuber. "I can still clearly see the walrus sliding onto the edge of the pool and playing the harmonica. Now I'm happy that we can borrow "Antje"."
For visitors to the Zoological Museum who don't want to do without "Antje" for half a year, there is a consolation: a postcard designed by Helga Schmidhuber for display on "Antje's" pedestal allows reduced admission to the Kunsthalle. The card also symbolizes the beginning of a cooperation between the Zoological Museum and the Kunsthalle. It is no coincidence that both museum directors see a close connection between art and nature.
