Zoom Image
»Apis Gropius« in the atrium of the Gropius Bau
Photo: Ana Prvački
From the ceiling of the atrium in the Gropius Bau, honey drips onto the tiles. Pink flowers sprout from the tiles and attract a bee. Soft music accompanies the insect's hasty flaps of wings. An off-screen voice invites you to take a close look at what is happening next: "We see how the bee stimulates the flower and seduces it into sharing its nectar with it. It's a sexual delusion that's happening right in front of our eyes."
The voice belongs to the artist Ana Prvački, who guides us through her augmented reality installation at the Gropius Bau. Because this world, the gigantic honeycomb and the flowers, for example, can only be seen with a mobile phone app. It is only on the screen that the bees come to life.
An invented species of bee
For the atrium of the exhibition house, Prvački invented her own species of bee, which she named "Apis Gropius". In the form of an approximately 20-minute digital tour, you follow this bee species through the museum and also see a digital version of the artist explaining her knowledge and thoughts on the insects.
Already in 2022, »Apis Gropius« was shown in the atrium. The fact that the installation moved back to Berlin's Gropius Bau this summer is due to the "great demand," as the artist reports in a video interview with SPIEGEL. Prvački is a Serbian performance and installation artist who has been working with bees and honey for a long time. "I always think of bees," she says. But it was above all photos of the bombed-out Gropius Bau after the Second World War that inspired her to install it: "A tree grew in the middle of the destroyed atrium, and the walls were full of cracks. As sad as that is, I thought to myself that bees would certainly feel very comfortable there.«
Bees that need art to live
This is how »Apis Gropius« was born – a species of bee that does not need nectar, but art to live. » Art is their food, just as it is for us humans when we go to a museum," says Prvački. The bee itself is a small work of art, the wings, for example, are mini-replicas of the atrium roof.
In addition to information on the rite of pollination, Prvački's artistic interpretation in »Apis Gropius« is particularly exciting. She sees bees as a species that holds our world together and has also shaped the history of art and architecture. For Prvački, honeycombs are architectural masterpieces. Even Le Corbusier and Mies van der Rohe were inspired by the parabolic arches of her honeycombs, she says.
»Apis Gropius« is a lovingly animated installation that achieves an almost meditative effect with its careful acoustic design. AR technology successfully merges the reality of the atrium architecture and the fictitious bee. Together, they reveal a world that is mysteriously intertwined with ours.
»Apis Gropius«: on view at the Gropius Bau in Berlin until 27.08.2023.