Graz rotor

Animals fight for their survival by any means necessary

Nada Prlja gives endangered animal species a voice with banners

(Bild: The Schubidu Quartet/Thomas Raggam)

Man's interaction with nature has been the focus of the rotor art center at Volksgartenstraße 6a in Graz for some time now. The current exhibition "In Situ" is about nothing less than the struggle for survival of endangered species.

The responsibility of humans for the increasingly massive extinction of species is beyond discussion. And yet we live as if there is no tomorrow. "If humanity does not acquire much more knowledge about global biodiversity and does not quickly decide to protect it, we will soon irretrievably lose most of the species that make up life on earth," says biologist Edward O. Wilson.

Show dedicated to the bat
In the current exhibition at the rotor, which is dedicated to the "Greater Horseshoe Bat", a bat species that only breeds at Eggenberg Castle in Graz, eleven artists deal with this topic - in very different and yet extremely poignant ways. The show is also the continuation of the exhibition "Ex Situ", which was realized by rotor directors Anton Lederer and Margarethe Makovec in Sarajevo and focused on the endangered "Bosnian newt".

In the rotor, you are immediately greeted by the remnants of a demonstration, with signs showing endangered animals demanding their rights. Nada Prlja gives them a voice. She has also designed the window to the courtyard with the endangered habitat of the mantled snail. Adrienn Újházi and Nemanja Milinković's objects made from organic materials also encourage us to reflect on the exploitation of nature. And Ralo Mayer follows in the footsteps of Paul Kammerer's experiments at the Biological Research Institute in Vienna, which were destroyed by the Nazis.

Oliver Ressler's contribution to "In Situ" in the Grazer <rotor>

(Bild: Oliver Ressler)

The exhibition continues with Anita Fuchs' subtle nature works, which incorporate the bat into their ecological cycle, and Irena Lagator Pejović's gilded cotton threads, which look like an organic construct. Lamija Čehajić's exhibits make animal lifeworlds approachable, while Teuta Gatolin develops a poetic ecological narrative to overcome the Capitalocene.

Of fish and cats
In Driant Zeneli's video, the story of the fish expert Sabiha Kasimati, who was murdered during the Albanian dictatorship, is told in mythological exaggeration with an underwater world made of papier-mâché, clay and robotics. Dardan Zhegrova, on the other hand, underlines his cat's fatal fall from a balcony with a quote from Virginia Woolf: "Someone has to die so that the rest of us value life more."

Finally, in the café, Darko Aleksovski shows potential living spaces, while Oliver Ressler puts it in his usual clear terms: "Property Will Cost Us the Earth."

The eye-opening exhibition is on display until May 18.