‘Trouble in Paradise’ installations at Vienna zoo draw attention to environmental issues

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German artists Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf have crafted a strange combination -- art installation meets zoo exhibit -- at Vienna’s Schönbrunn Zoo.

The end result, called ‘Trouble in Paradise,’ is intended to raise awareness about the perils of habitat destruction in an innovative, if off-putting, way. The zoo says the artists used the concept of the readymade -- everyday objects functioning as art, made famous by artist Marcel Duchamp with pieces such as ‘Bicycle Wheel’ and ‘Fountain’ -- as inspiration.

The exhibits created by Steinbrener and Dempf include a penguin habitat with a prominently placed oil pump, railroad tracks in the bison enclosure, and wrecked cars submerged in the water of the rhinoceros enclosure. ‘Trouble in Paradise’ will run through October 18, after which the altered enclosures will be returned to their original, pristine states.

‘Trouble in Paradise’ has already proven provocative: three zoogoers have cancelled their annual memberships to the zoo, according to the German news source Spiegel Online.

-- Lindsay Barnett