Summary
\nBerlin-based artist Itamar Gov presents The Rhinoceros in the Room at Kunstmusueum Magdeburg
\nThe exhibition is anchored by an enormous, inflatable installation of a Northern White rhinoceros
\nThe artwork punctuates the space\u2019s centuries-old architecture with a contemporary intervention of history, sculpture and myth<\/p>\n
Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, the medieval German museum, is playing host to an unusual scene: a colossal Northern White rhinoceros standing between its Romanesque naves. At 17 meters wide and 9 meters tall the inflatable artwork is the latest installation by Berlin-based artist Itamar Gov<\/a>, as part of The Rhinoceros in the Room, his ongoing solo exhibition running through July 5.<\/p>\n More than just occupy the nave, the creature redefines its architecture. The sharp geometry of the building\u2019s centuries-old stonework and ceilings are broken up by the rhinoceros\u2019s rounded back and soft body, making visitors trace the perimeter and discover the architecture from oblique angles.<\/p>\n A multi-channel composition created in collaboration with Bruno Delepaire, the principal cellist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, also plays above. Comprising eight cellos and a vocalist, the music drifts between recognizable lullaby tones and darker passages.\n<\/p>\n Suspended between monumentality and weightlessness, the rhinoceros looms with a presence both ancient and otherworldy. The spectacle draws on the animal\u2019s complex symbolic history in Europe. It\u2019s notoriously sensitive, capable of sudden violence when threatened; it embodied power and dominion, even as human desire and captivity nearly pushed it to extinction.\n<\/p>\n