BiodiverCity. Urban animals

Having become a place to learn about the world's wildlife, the renovated Zoological Museum is devoting its first temporary exhibition, "BiodiverCity," to the city's animals.

Devised as a walk punctuated by drawings by the wildlife illustrator Valentine Plessy, the “BiodiverCity” exhibition examines the ways in which human and non-human city dwellers coexist in times of environmental crises.

Is the city merely an ecosystem like any other? Even though nearly 80% of the French population now lives in urban areas, such places tend to be regarded as unnatural spaces. However, a multitude of species and sizes of animals of all origins lives next to us on a daily basis. By focusing on such local biodiversity, the exhibition reaffirms the need to contemplate the continuity of our relationships with living things, beyond our emotions.

Visitors will discover around thirty species in five environments representative of the Strasbourg area: the street, sewers, parks, the cathedral, urban wasteland. These five biotopes reflect issues common to all cities, such as the occupation of buildings by wildlife, waste management in public spaces and the maintenance of ecological continuity in the face of increased housing pressure.

Certain species presented, such as the stork and the bee, are emblematic of efforts to protect living creatures; others, including Florida turtles and rats, reflect imbalances resulting from human activity. All are associated with subjective values and representations.

By bringing these elements into play, “BiodiverCity” underlines the city’s role as a laboratory space in which our relationships with other beings are negotiated daily. In doing so, it establishes animals as a protagonist in their own right.

Valentine Plessy is a wildlife illustrator based in Strasbourg. Since the beginning of her career, she has contributed to numerous books and films devoted to animal diversity.

The presentation of her work at the heart of the exhibition extends the existing link between the Museum and local wildlife artists and reaffirms the importance of drawing and in situ observation in discovering and understanding living creatures.

The scenography was entrusted to HEAR students as part of an art school project.

This partnership represents a continuation of the ties between the two institutions.

Steering committee: Simon Malivoire de Camas, curator and project manager at Strasbourg Zoological Museum, Samuel Cordier, curator and director of the Strasbourg Zoological Museum.

Technical committee: Adine Hector, head of the Territorial Ecology department,

Marie-Laure Desigaux, “animal in the city” project manager, City and Eurometropolis of Strasbourg.

In partnership with Haute école des arts du Rhin (HEAR)

This exhibition is being presented within the framework of the reopening of the Zoological Museum under the joint auspices of Strasbourg City Museums and the University of Strasbourg’s Jardin des sciences