WALK OF INSECTS - Edgar Honetschläger

IN reference to the Walk of Fame in Hollywood. Project commissioned by BIG ART for the BOKU Vienna. https://www.big-art.at/en/projekte/walk-of-insects-university-of-natural-resources-and-life-science

Info in German: https://www.big-art.at/projekte/walk-of-insects-universitat-fur-bodenkultur-wien

In 2023, Edgar Honetschläger, founder and CEO of GoBugsGo was invited to participate in an art competition.The institution that commissioned it is the BIG (Federal Real Estate Company). Whenever the state of Austria constructs something a small percentage must be invested in art. For each project, artists are invited to compete. In this case BIG ART gifted the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences (BOKU) Vienna an artwork for its 150th anniversary. In collaboration with the entomologist Dominique Zimmermann, a GoBugsGo board member, developed an insect manifesto: 13 statements for a world in which humans and insects can live in harmony. Next in collaboration with scientists from the BOKU insects were chosen that represent the most important insect groups. Together with the guidelines there were carved into thirteen granite stones and embedded permanently on the square in front of the University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Vienna. The artwork was inaugurated May 21, 2024, and from there on, all students, professors, and members of the university will step on this artwork as they enter or leave the institution. As a symbolic 14th stone, a new patch of land (9 acres) in Lower Austria was acquired for GoBugsGo – that is, for the insects – and turned into another Non-Human Zone, according to the principles of the institution.

BIG ART and its jury who decided for this project were truly brave, as the Austrian state commissioned a piece of art, yet most of the funding went into purchasing nature. Culture (everything humans create) is assured our protection but nature does not enjoy the same treatment – if destroyed not many care. However, if nature is declared to be art, it deserves the same protection. The realisation of this project will hopefully mark the beginning of the end of of the dichotomy civilisation/culture-nature.