Ever since Albrecht Dürer's famous woodcut, the rhinoceros has been closely associated with Europe as a symbol of imperial power. With its horn and armour, this relic of a primeval beast attracted the attention of onlookers and powerful potentates alike. But the half-blind, multi-tonne animal, thick-skinned and steady on its feet – almost exterminated by humans – is also a danger to humans due to its sensitive nature. The installation ‘Rhinozeros in the Room’ is based on this ambivalence, combining historical events, philosophical ideas and local legends and questioning the fragile boundaries between fact and fiction, memory and imagination.
From a room-filling multi-channel composition by Bruno Delepelaire for eight cellos (Bruno Delepelaire and Moritz Huemer) and vocals (Noa Beinart), we hear classical melodies or a soothing lullaby, recognise lines from Goethe's Erlkönig and catch sounds from Paul Ben-Haim's Hebrew Hitragut. The two ‘worlds’ of Erlkönig and Hitragut form a kind of dialogue, a lullaby and a spooky fairy tale, constantly shifting between gentle reassurance and alarming horror.
At a time when public debate is increasingly shaped by fundamental questions about how we live together, the installation explores mechanisms of conformity, anti-democratic attitudes and resistance, and invites visitors to reflect on an open, tolerant society. With stations located at various sites across the state of Saxony-Anhalt, the installation creates opportunities for encounters and exchange outside the context of art – right in the heart of public spaces.
Itamar Gov, born in Tel Aviv in 1989, has lived in Berlin since 2010 and studied film studies, literature and history in Bologna, Berlin and Paris. Gov has presented his work in numerous institutions around the world and has been artist-in-residence at the Cité internationale des arts, the Nordic Artists' Centre and, in 2025, the Casa Baldi in Rome, among others.
