Itamar Gov Infaltable Rhinoceros at Kunstmuseum Magdeburg

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Courtesy Of The Artist And Kunstmusuem Magdeburg

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Courtesy Of The Artist And Kunstmusuem Magdeburg

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Courtesy Of The Artist And Kunstmusuem Magdeburg

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Courtesy Of The Artist And Kunstmusuem Magdeburg

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Courtesy Of The Artist And Kunstmusuem Magdeburg

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Summary
Berlin-based artist Itamar Gov presents The Rhinoceros in the Room at Kunstmusueum Magdeburg
The exhibition is anchored by an enormous, inflatable installation of a Northern White rhinoceros
The artwork punctuates the space’s centuries-old architecture with a contemporary intervention of history, sculpture and myth

Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, the medieval German museum, is playing host to an unusual scene: a colossal Northern White rhinoceros standing between its Romanesque naves. At 17 meters wide and 9 meters tall the inflatable artwork is the latest installation by Berlin-based artist Itamar Gov, as part of The Rhinoceros in the Room, his ongoing solo exhibition running through July 5.

More than just occupy the nave, the creature redefines its architecture. The sharp geometry of the building’s centuries-old stonework and ceilings are broken up by the rhinoceros’s rounded back and soft body, making visitors trace the perimeter and discover the architecture from oblique angles.

A multi-channel composition created in collaboration with Bruno Delepaire, the principal cellist of the Berliner Philharmoniker, also plays above. Comprising eight cellos and a vocalist, the music drifts between recognizable lullaby tones and darker passages.

Suspended between monumentality and weightlessness, the rhinoceros looms with a presence both ancient and otherworldy. The spectacle draws on the animal’s complex symbolic history in Europe. It’s notoriously sensitive, capable of sudden violence when threatened; it embodied power and dominion, even as human desire and captivity nearly pushed it to extinction.