The Scream of the Strawbear

Kunsthalle Gießen & Oberhessisches Museum, Giessen, Germany, 2019.

In the framework of the research for this project, is the historical figure of Ernst Dieffenbach, one of the first European scientists to travel to New Zealand. The show includes a straw version of Dieffenbach’s Rail, an extinct native New Zealand bird named after him. In inverting Dieffenbach's colonial era journey, the exhibition presents a ‘pseudo-ethnological’ investigation of wider cultural phenomena and folkloric motifs that span Giessen, New Zealand and England.

At the centre of this artistic research are the Strawbear and the Maimann, two traditional seasonal rituals common to the region of Hessen, Germany. The installation contains new artworks and videos as well as artefacts from the Oberhessisches Museum that are combined in presentations in the Kunsthalle and two locations in the Museum.

The final video presentation in the exhibition is performed by staff from the Cultural Office / Kulturamt of the city, taking up the strawbear’s scream in a non-lingual instinctive reflection on the tradition and the exhibition itself.

The exhibition was made with the grateful collaboration of : David Barnes; Boss Morris; Dr. Ludwig Brake (Stadtarchiv Gießen); Prof. Dr. Siegfried Becker, Institut für Europäische Ethnologie/Kulturwissenschaft Philipps-Universität Marburg; Freiwillige Feuerwehr Rittershausen; Freiwillige Feuerwehr Steinbrücken; Traditionsverein Königsberg; Prof. Dr. Volker Wissemann, Wiss. Leiter des Botanischen Gartens Gießen.

Supported by: Verein Ehrenamt Gießen e. V., Canon and the KONE Foundation.

[image credits:Rolf K. Wegst; Jens Gerber]