Wolfgang Oelze

1st prize – art in public space competition for the subway station Hagenbecks Tierpark (zoo); executive planning: Torsten Werner. Hamburg, 2006

“Jenny und Tim” is composed of three individual installations:
1) “Formicarium ”; living ants cultivated in a 7.5 meter high biotope, equipped with an actual tree trunk, heating, ventilator, humidifier, feeding and maintenance hatches, internal and external lighting
2) “Ant Street”; video work in split screen technique on sixteen 42-inch plasma monitors; dimensions of each monitor approx. 120cm x 80cm, installation at knee-height. Opposite wall: Mirror row opposite the monitors, 6mm float glass mirror and amber coated polycarbonate, installation chest-high
3) “Jenny and Tim's Nest”; termite nest magnified 1.5 times. Total height 7.80 m, diameter 5.30 m, rigid foam 3-fold glass fiber - laminated with plastic/plaster finish, surface modeled. Load-distributing steel sub-structure, 2 external floodlights

Concept:
Two vacationists have been photographing themselves in front of a large termite nest in Western Australia in 2003. Their names are Jenny and Tim. Jenny has published the photo on her website.

In 2006, a contest had been issued by Hamburg’s cultural administration for an invited group of artists. The goal was finding an artistic project for the subway station of the Hamburg zoo ”Hagenbeck”. A jury of sixteen experts had elected “Jenny und Tim” for the first prize.

Non-technical description:
1) In the entrance hall of the subway station, there is a formicarium, a seven-meter tall hollow glass column. The formicarium forms the habitat of a living ant population.
2) In the pedestrian underpass, sixteen video monitors are showing a column of ants extending over the screens. On the opposite wall, an amber-colored mirror reflects the ants and the pedestrians.
3) On the roof of the northern exit stands a slightly magnified naturalistic sculpture of an actual termite nest, which is 7.5 meters high.