The new Kunsthaus deals with a topic that is as traditional as it is ambivalent in the exhibition »Model Animal«

Images of animals are as old as art itself. All over the world they fascinated human cultures, which assigned complex symbolisms to animals and thus expressed both aversion and veneration. For the most part, the animal is treated as an object rather than a subject, which in the recent past has repeatedly sparked protests such as Hirst's works consisting of dead butterflies or Guillermo Vargas' starving dog chained in a gallery in 2008. The emotionality of the protests highlights the depth of the relationship between humans and animals.

In the exhibition »Model Animal« several international artists, including Roni Horn and Thomas Struth, present recent works on this interrelationship. The animal snatched from its natural environment, part of drawings, paintings, photographs and installations with different intentions. The artworks are juxtaposed with scientific images of a "lynx project" of the Georg-August-University of Göttingen, which exist for the purpose of gaining knowledge and here enter into dialogue with the artworks.

The Kunsthaus Göttingen opened in June 2021 in a modern new building on the initiative of the founding director Gerhard Steidl, founder and director of the Steidl publishing house. Three to four solo or group exhibitions will be held each year, primarily dedicated to art education and education.