Two tubes protrude from the upper edge of the cream-colored case, and a circular pattern adorns the front. Could this be a model of a camera? No, explains Nicolas Schröder, it is an extraterrestrial musical instrument that he found in a crashed spaceship. However, anyone who wants to test the object directly and find out what music from distant galaxies sounds like will be disappointed by the student: Only extraterrestrials from the planet Vuma can generate sound waves that produce sounds on the instrument.
An extraterrestrial musical instrument modeled in clay by Nicolas Schröder.
(Photo: Florian Peljak/)
Giving the imagination free rein was one of the aims of the project that art teacher Wolfgang Köppl prepared for around a year and a half together with 13 high school students from the Ismaninger Gymnasium, and which is now culminating in an exhibition in the gallery in the palace pavilion. The young artists only had to fulfill one requirement: They should create objects that could be rare discoveries from alien planets and devise the appropriate story. “The question was not only which work of art to create, but also how to present and tell the story,” says Köppl.
According to Köppl, the inspiration for the unusual project came from science fiction literature. In the works of the Soviet author brothers Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, there is often talk of strange objects, of which nobody really knows what they are. This allure of the mysterious has always fascinated people. In reality, according to Köppl, archaeologists, for example, are always in similar situations. “They often discover things whose function is initially unclear to people today.” After all, it is only with a change of perspective that you can get closer to the past or foreign cultures.
That’s exactly what the Ismaninger students should implement with their works, says Köppl: “They should open their own world to other ways of thinking.” The creativity of the 12th graders seemed inexhaustible, as the diversity of the exhibits shows. The students not only presented musical instruments, but also extraterrestrial jewelry, mysterious containers with metallic liquid, plants from distant planets or even a species of insect preserved in preservatives.
Mona Drickl and her Inarit snails, which solidify on contact with oxygen.
(Photo: Florian Peljak/)
Mona Drickl also wants to offer insights into the animal world of other galaxies with her artwork. Structures in shades of blue and gray meander in a glass case. “These are inarit snails that freeze when exposed to oxygen.” According to the schoolgirl, the animals hide their brood in small sand towers. Due to the shiny, gold-speckled surface, they are coveted collector’s items.
According to the 17-year-old, the greatest challenge was the complete artistic freedom to come up with such imaginative objects and stories to go with them. “Sometimes you didn’t even know where to start.” But the joy of staging the results of the long work when setting up the exhibition outweighs it. Kai Brilliantov looks back on the project in a similar way. The 12th grader has created a carnivorous plant from a distant planet and is fascinated by the inventiveness of her classmates, as she says: “It’s exciting to see what the others have come up with. It shows that everyone has their own definition of extraterrestrial. “
Kai Brilliantov created a carnivorous plant.
(Photo: Florian Peljak/)
Teacher Köppl was aware that such a free project on the subject of aliens would also offer an opportunity to have fun, as he says. For him, by his own admission, it was both joy and difficulty to give the students a push and then largely withdraw. “Of course there was also the fear that things would go haywire. But everyone took it seriously and didn’t disappoint me.”
The project was also a change for Rasmus Kleine. The director of the Ismaninger Kallmann Museum supported the students in preparing and setting up the exhibition. Artists are usually chosen consciously and they know their works, he says: “We had a big unknown here before.” However, the risk was worth it for Kleine: “Even for a museum it is a different perspective to work together with young, unknown artists.”
The exhibition “UFO – Unknown finds”, organized by students from the Ismaninger Gymnasium in cooperation with the Kallmann Museum, can be seen in the gallery in the palace pavilion in Ismaning until January 22nd.