2023 – 2025
rabbitorium
passion rabbits
Rabbitorium I
6. – 14.September 2023
VdBK 1867 e.V.,2023
Rabbitorium II
17. Apr. – 15. May 2023
Golda Showroom , 2025
The idea for the first Rabbitorium exhibition was conceived by Niki Elbe, who, in her capacity as curator, invited her colleagues to participate in the exhibition held at the VdBK 1867: Julia Brodauf, Hanna Dogherty, Niki Elbe, Anna Onno Gatjal, Felix Müller and Anja Nolte. For each following exhibition, a different member of the team takes on the role of curator. The exhibitions feature paintings, sculptures, and films that celebrate rabbits as creatures, that weave their way through the works of five artists — and also serve as alter egos.
noltes rabbitorium
Rabbitorium, 2023, Video FHD, installation. exhibition view –
VdBK 1867 e.V. (Association of Berlin Women Artists 1867)
Nolte´s work Rabbitorium depicts the inner workings of an exaggerated laboratory setting where good-luck charms such as rabbit’s feet are mass-produced, while a macabre conveyor belt runs through the space. At the same time, decadent scenes are staged in which wealth, excess, and bizarre rituals collide. Overall, the Rabbitorium serves as a metaphor for a society in which prosperity is achieved at the expense of others and absurdity is part of everyday life.
Rabbits dressed as cats—known as the Cleaners—are tasked with cleaning the Rabbitorium using their trunk-like, dust-sucking appendages. Even though you can see their exposed, beating hearts through a viewing window, they are still rather intimidating and bring to mind the evil lurking within the “rabbit.”
In the laboratory, the evening ritual of worshiping the most sacred shit, which swings past, gleaming golden and rattling, as it hangs on the conveyor belt.
The underlying idea: To turn shit into gold, all it takes is a sufficient number of rabbits who believe in it. And: The larger the number of rabbits who believe in something, the more likely lies—such as fake news—become supposed realities.
