The Panorama am Zoo unveils Yadegar Asisi’s fascinating 360° panorama Amazonia, an incredible journey of discovery through the tropical rainforest. For the first time in northern Germany, visitors can experience one of the Berlin artist’s panorama art installations. The 32-metre-high and 110-metre-round 360° panorama is on show in the leaf-green rotunda of the Panorama am Zoo, which was erected this year next to the Hanover Adventure Zoo.
“Yadegar Asisi’s nature panoramas are the perfect complement to the zoo’s thematic worlds: they give an impressive and moving insight into natural environments that are under threat,” explains the zoo’s business director, Andreas M Casdorff.
With Amazonia, Asisi has created a hyper-realistic artistic space in which the varied plant life of the Amazon basin and its complex ecosystem are presented in an artistically consolidated form. Visitors to the cylindrical building can view the circular image from various levels: three viewing platforms in the centre positioned at heights of six, 12 and 15 metres, as well as ground-floor level, offer a wealth of different perspectives.
See how the view expands from a clearing into the wide, open landscape of the Amazon, how it moves from the treetops of primeval forest giants with buttress roots up to 10 metres high to fascinating plants and animals, from the Parkia pendula to arrowroots and bromeliads, from strawberry poison-dart frogs and mud-licking butterflies to elegant jaguars and artfully arranged climbing ocelots. Thanks to day and night simulations, visitors get to experience several days in the Amazon and are truly immersed in the unrivaled beauty and enormous diversity of the tropical rainforest. Those who take their time and look closely will discover the world of Amazonia in all its guises – with some surprises.
Asisi journeyed to the Amazon region four times in order to develop the concept for the rainforest panorama. The resulting tens of thousands of photos and countless sketches and watercolors were used to create the artwork. The immeasurable diversity of the tropics and the complex symbiotic mechanisms of the ecosystem were the main driving forces for Asisi. Visitors wander around the strange world of the rainforest, discovering its secrets with the help of a creative light installation and evocative soundtrack, featuring music composed especially for the exhibition by Eric Babak.
“I am delighted with the synergies that have emerged between the panorama and the zoo. They are two different ways of looking at the world,” says Yadegar Asisi. “I am excited to see how this will be received by the people of Hanover and other visitors.”
“One of our main goals at the zoo is to stimulate people’s interest in nature and conservation by showing them the magnificent landscapes and enormous diversity of planet Earth,” adds Andreas M Casdorff. “Amazonia is a brilliant showcase for the South-American continent and its unique animal kingdom, and is a perfect bridge between a visit to the zoo and Asisi’s artistic creation in the Panorama am Zoo.’
Amazonia will be on view at Panorama am Zoo in Hannover until December 31, 2017. For more information, prices and opening times, visit panorama-am-zoo.de or asisi.de.
all images by Christian Wyrwa © asisi