is a multiple channel video installation. The video footage was shot in zoological gardens in New York City, Amsterdam and Basel. The videos look at the apes through the gaze of the tourist, but show the spectacle of the visitors viewing and attempting to interact with, and even imitating the animals. The project reveals more about human behavior, the physical conditions and the cultural/historical context than about the animals.

The project is an observation and a contribution to the evolution debates in the United States.

Among other things the project also reflects upon spectacle and artificial construction of nature, naturalization of confinement, and spectacle as a removal of reality of time and space. The zoo/gorilla spectacle is positioned as a global brand, in which geographical distance is eliminated, reproducing internal distance as spectacular separation.

a project by Liselot van der Heijden
courtesy of LMAK Projects, New York