TUE GREENFORT
NEOBIOTA

KVB BRESLAUER PLATZ, COLOGNE, GERMANY
PERMANENT INSTALLATION SINCE 2010

If you want to see Great and Small Alexander Parakeets (also known as Collared Parakeets) in the wild, you don't have to travel to Asia or Africa – you can also find them in Cologne. The bright green parrots, which initially lived in Cologne zoos, have now found a home in the parks and forests of the cathedral city. Tue Greenfort has made the feathered "new citizens" the main protagonists of an installation that transfers the life of the birds into the seemingly quite unnatural ambiance of a highly modern train station in the underground of a metropolis of millions. Greenfort's installation demonstrates that in a complex urban landscape, nature and urbanity can no longer be seen separately. The parakeets themselves also represent a fusion of very different worlds, blurring boundaries between the "native" and the "exotic." Many aspects of the way of life of these birds are still unknown. And so Tue Greenfort's installation could also be seen as a research project in which anyone can participate at will.

With the installation, NEOBIOTA Tue Greenfort transfers images and voices of these colorful birds into the station Breslauer Platz. Via screens and a sound bell, which are connected live to the nesting and roosting sites of the parrots, passengers can follow the life of the animals visually and acoustically. Text panels and overlays provide ornithological information about these bird species.© Images Alwin Lay, Tue Greenfort, Annette Greenfort, Benjamin Tillig

FEATURED ARTIST

TUE GREENFORT
Tue Greenfort (b. 1973 in Holbaek, Denmark) lives and works in Horbelev, Denmark.

Tue Greenfort’s interdisciplinary practice deals with issues such as the public and private realms, nature, and culture. Interweaving these subjects with the language of art he formulates a multi-faceted critique of today's dominant economical and scientific production. Intrigued by the dynamics in the natural world, Greenfort’s work often evolves around ecology and its history, including the environment, social relations, and human subjectivity.

The roots of his practice lie in the art movements of the 1960s and 1970s, such as Land Art and research...
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