Together against the lockdown blues, together revitalising urban space, together reaching people: With #WildWalk, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is launching a pop-up exhibition project to temporarily breathe new life into vacant storefronts in the city. First, a group of white-handed gibbons will move into a shop window in the Rathaus-Center Pankow. This is to be followed by other objects and locations throughout the city.
"With the kick-off in Pankow, we want to encourage other property owners or people whose shops cannot open at the moment to join our project and make their shop windows available for the #WildWalk. We see it as a project with mutual added value - we bring the museum to the people in the city and at the same time the #WildWalk draws attention to vacant shop premises. The effort is minimal, all it takes is a shop window, some space and a power socket," says project coordinator Mathias Zilch.
#WildWalk is as versatile as Berlin itself: Vacant shop premises are temporarily brought to new life by objects from the Museum für Naturkunde. The result is a pop-up exhibition walk in Berlin's urban space that is constantly changing. Once a shop has been re-rented, the staging disappears. Instead, a new shop window pops up at a different location. An interactive city map shows all the current stations of the #WildWalk.
"For years, the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin has been experimenting with exhibition and communication formats and often breaks new ground. In doing so, courage and an unconventional approach have often paid off. With our first step, to now also go into the Berlin urban space, we are consistently continuing this path," says Head of Exhibition, Uwe Moldrzyk.
#WildWalk is an attempt to create positive experiences, variety and inspiration despite social distancing, closed shops and museums. It is an appeal to look forward and to dare new beginnings. The first location to be played is in the Rathaus-Center Pankow, where a group of white-handed gibbons will be presented. The individuals are dermoplastics, i.e. artificial animal bodies covered with the original fur and brought to life by the museum's taxidermists in a feat of craft and art.
Berliner Sparkasse drew our attention to the project and we were immediately enthusiastic," says centre manager Peter Schönbrunn. "As a fan of Berlin`s Museum für Naturkunde, I think it's great that we have the first WildWalk location in the Rathaus Center Pankow. We are excited to see how the hopefully numerous customers react."
More dermoplastics are waiting to be shown in the pop-up exhibition - and the Museum für Naturkunde Berlin is waiting for interested parties. Take a walk on the wild side!
Concept, contact and further information are available here:
The link to #WildWalk Digital with interactive city map
The project was realised within the framework of the action plan of the Leibniz Research Museums.
To the digital offers of the museum