"Kyrrrreck, gerk!" - Schaffhausen, Switzerland, 2015
„Kyrrrreck, gerk!“ is a quotation respectively a call out of the year 1913.
It is the Greenfooted Moorhen which according to the ornithologist Carl Stemmler (1882 - 1971) pronounces its call in this way.
Carl Stemmler* wrote his observations about the birds of Schaffhausen, along the river Rhine and the surrounding fields in a kind of a diary of about 7 books. These observations build the base of this work.
The typewritten notes were about unexcitedly local - but for birds sometimes dangerous - incidents which have something touching particularly when one considers that they have been written before, during and after the 1 & 2 world wars.
A voice recalls the past by reading from the observations - and also opens the limited physical space of the art box.
The project has been realised in one of the art boxes (Kunstkasten) of the Vebikus Kunsthalle Schaffhausen on the occasion of their 30 year yubilee.
* Carl Stemmler was an ornithologist, taxidermist, conservationist and furrier living in Schaffhausen. He also was the founder of the Museum Stemmler.
Media:
- Photograph (lambda print on aluminium 58cm x 38cm)
- bookrest (pine wood, 46cm x 46cm)
- QR-code: Audio file, duration: 13min
Acknowledgement:
- Anselm Caminada (Sounddesign), cmunz (QR‑Code) and Francis Bovet (wood work)
- Team of Vebikus Kunsthalle Schaffhausen
- Special thanks to Mr. Charles Clerc; his "voice" helped to make the project a success.
- With the kindly consent of Dr. Urs Weibel, curator of the Departement of Natural History and the Museum Stemmler in Schaffhausen.