To harvest the wild means to maintain the wild!
DIE VOGELKOJE - highly sophisticated catching facilities for wild ducks and strong sculptures in the landscape. This is a special cultural heritage of the Frisian people who is living along the coastline of Northern Germany and the Netherlands. I entered a bird's view and worked my way down to the microscopic level of this fascinating world of harvesting the wild. The material was gathered through two longer stays at the island of Föhr, in close collaboration with Museum Kunst der Westküste and the last remaining trapper men’s who opened their world to me. It was an explosion of rich biodiversity and huge mythical symbols that appears like something from out of space. I want to offer the audience this feeling and the work will be presented as a 4-cannel film-installation at the museum.
As very little is left of natural wildlife on the continent the Frisians had to reinvent nature to harvest it. The duck decoys forms oasis of ritch biodiversity in an agricultural landscape shaped to suit the human needs.
This attracted wild ducks that was on their way to Scandinavia and became one of the islands main incomes for centuries. In a collaboration between man, tame decoy ducks and a special dog of the breed, Kooikerhondje, the wild ducks were harvested in large numbers and provided both meat and down for the people.
To keep up the catch meant to maintain the wild! Today, all this is history as the island has been dammed up and the requirements for meat have changed radically. I ask myself, which is better: organic or wild?
plow the land or build habitats?
The project DECOY BIOTOPE is part of the series «FANGSTARKITEKTUR» (Trapping Architecture) where I explore metaphorical and architectural aspects of trapping installations that are built into the landscape with native materials.
