Curiosity and Control

Wonder, exploitation, and a desire to preserve; Curiosity and Control is about our complex relationship with nature. Through interviews with zoo directors, historians, and architects, the exhibition explores how dioramas in natural history museums and zoos have attempted to reconnect people with nature, as well as our drive to control it. As zoo director David Hancock puts it; There’s a fine line between loving something and possessing it.

For the past 20 years, Albin Biblom has investigated humanity’s desire to explore but also to tame nature and animals. In a three-part exhibition based on three documentary films, the visitor gains insight into his in-depth research.

In all the films, there is humanity’s contradictory striving to be one with nature and, in the same breath, distance themselves from it and control it. This paradoxical approach is examined through various types of phenomena, such as the construction of zoos, dying traditions, and humanity’s ideas about expansion. In the exhibition room, each film is shown in its entirety during the respective exhibition period. The stories are expanded with photographs, texts, and archival material.

Upcoming parts of the exhibition opening:
The Conquest of Space – March 7, 5:00 PM–8:00 PM