Location : -
Date : May 2004
Lubetkin's Penguin Pool at the London Zoo
Digital Fabrication for "Weimar Public" Artists
How to Zoo, 2009 (Weimar Public)
Installation
Three dimensional print 150cmx120cmx60cm, wooden
case, adhesive text on wall, pamphlets
Details and views of the Installation in the National
Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens, 2009.
For the exhibition Vom Labor zum Projekt in Neues
Museum Weimar, Weimar Public recomposed and
redesigned the work How to zoo. The new artwork
formed a re-enactment of the situation shown on
the 1936 poster of the penguins, commenting on the
anthropocentric approach of the Penguin Pool. The
intention of the Penguin Pool’s modern architects was
to make people familiar with modern
architecture without paying any attention to the needs
of the animals. The Penguin Pool soon was rated as
inappropriate for the animals and closed. Today it
stands as an architectural monument.
Weimar Public observed that the Penguin Pool, even
without animals, still attracts the attention of the
London Zoo’s visitors. Just as the penguins stared at
the model of the pool in 1936, the visitors now stare at
the empty building. Furthermore, the
information panel of the Penguin Pool states
characteristically: “ZSL is proud to restore this
important cultural structure as a water feature … but
for people rather than penguins”. During the opening of the exhibition, the viewers were photographed
while looking at the model of the pool through a
penguin’s body. The photographs were printed at once
and given to the viewers along with the poster of the
penguins.