A Walk Through the Zoo /2018/
a tier-dokufiction and performance lecture. a research project developed with the support and collaboration of the Schönbrunn Zoo, The Natural History Museum and the Zoological Collection, Department of Theoretical Biology, University of Vienna, Vienna, Austria. video edited by: Ana Hušman / screenplay in collaboration with: Daniel Popović. As the dictionary defines, the word 'zoo' (noun) can relate to: 1. an establishment which maintains a collection of wild animals, typically in a park or gardens, for study, conservation, or display to the public; 2. a situation characterized by confusion and disorder. Through history, Zoo’s transformed the way we see animals and ourselves. Emerging as an emblem of a colonial power, Zoo’s have been always inspired debates because they changed our relationship with the nature. Today, Zoo’s sometimes enlighten us, sometimes outrage us and provoke us. Zoo’s enrich lives, but also destroys them. Playing with the dualism of the meaning of the ‘zoo’, the lecture performance represents a tier-dokufiction research project about the Schönbrunn Zoo and its animals. Formed around four narrative structures, it follows the lives of four different animals and its historical contexts. It re-contextualises one part of the picture archive, formed by a former Zoo director Otto Antonius (1925-1945), which is today kept in the Geschichtsforschung & Dokumentation of the Schönbrunn Zoo.

Sculpture Study: for Bretteldorf /2018/
38 cardboard sculptures / dimensions variable / 2018. Made by the photographic documentation of the Vienna International Garden Show, 1964. from the archive of the Österreichisches Gartenbaumuseum & Wiener Stadtgärten, Vienna, Austria. Bretteldorf (board village) was a wild settlement towards the end of the 19th century, on the island between the Danube and the Old Danube, between the centre of Vienna and the districts of Floridsdorf and Donaustadt. It was a landfill site, and the first inhabitants of the board village lived on the sale of the recyclable materials they found on the dumping. The landowner of the entire Danube Island at that time was the abbey Klosterneuburg, from which the settlers leased their parcels for a small fee. As a result, working-class families were also increasingly settling on the edge of the landfill. Their branch was illegal in any case, especially since there were no official building permits. Already in the years before the First World War, the community of Vienna was against the existing settlement, which was mostly built by simple materials (boards), but the settlers could initially assert themselves withouth the help of the goverment. In the emergency time after the First World War, the Bretteldorf community contributed with their agricultural products and significally helped the food supply of Vienna.The board village grew considerably, especially in the period after the First World War. In 1925. Bretteldorf counted 238 residential properties. But in 1926, the city administration tried to dissolve them and a conflict between the town hall and the settlers arouse in the so-called "Bretteldorfer war". Even trenches were dug, and the Bretteldorf carpenter's house served as the "Ministry of War". Although the defense was successful at first and a considerable extension of the term was achieved, the dissolution of the settlement could not be prevented in the end. Families were relocated, but this was interrupted by the Second World War. The Nazi regime used it for parade ground, and it also became a notorious site of executions. The last Bretteldorfers were relocated in the early 1960s. Under the auspices of the Vienna International Garden Show in 1964 (WIG 64), a generous park area (today Donau Park) was created on the site of the former board village. The WIG 64 meant the final end for the Bretteldorf settlement. The WIG 64, opened in April 1964, and it was the largest garden show in Europe at the time. In Vienna, it represented the most important major event of the post-war period. Today, many of the features of the WIG64 have been dismantled or adapted for other uses. The cardboard sculptures were made from the photographic documentation of the WIG 64, from the archives of the Österreichisches Gartenbaumuseum and the Wiener Stadtgärten. Literature: Wien Geschichte Wiki; Johann Werfring, Bretteldorfer Krieg in Transdanubien, in der Kolumne "Museumsstücke" In: "Wiener Zeitung", Beilage "ProgrammPunkte", S. 72014

Emil (B5044) /2018/
series of photographs; work in progress / unedited. Emil the orangutan, was a former pet of a Serbian civil servant in Vienna, who had to sell him to the Schonbrunn Zoo, because of a transfer in his service. Between 1927 and 1938, Emil was a media star and a favorite attraction in the Zoo - until he became so obese and so depressed that he refused every contact (Kleine Volks-Zeitung, January 26, 1938). Orangutans are best known for their intelligence, long arms and reddish-brown fur. They live in Indonesia and Malaysia and are the most solitary of the great apes. The name orangutan is derived from the Malay and Indonesian words meaning "person of the forest" (orang - person; hutan - forest). Orangutans, like other non-human primates, are often targets of smugglings: they become pets, actors in movies, marketing tools in various advertisements, famous inhabitants of Zoos, and after their death even museum displays. The series of photographs and video work are part of a work-in-progress project, which examines the complex relationship between the humans and the animals, the nature and the culture, the history and the present. By exploring Emile's history, as well as his life after death in different cultural and scientific institutions, it opens up questions of cross-cultural misunderstandings of anthropomorphism, colonialism, and the ideological motives for maintaining museum collections and its display. It underlines the idea of ”The Human Zoo” described by Desmond Morris (1969), who proposed that the unnatural behavior of animals in zoos could help us understand, accept, and overcome the stresses that life in consumer societies brings.