The Way to Nature

As you stroll through the woods, your senses are on high alert: you gaze at the forest floor, raise your eyes to the heavens, peer around the next tree or seek out the ground beneath a root. We made such a principle of playful discovery part of the exhibition space, and filled the white surfaces of an entire screen with content as abundant, dense and multifaceted as the forest itself.

Forty years ago, Germany’s first national park was created in the Bavarian Forest. In 1982, in order to make this enormous protected area better known to its many visitors, the Hans-Eisenmann-Haus Visitor Centre was inaugurated, the first of its kind in Germany. With "The Way to Nature – A History of Forest and People", we designed an exhibition that offers a glimpse of nature through the lens of culture. We were inspired by the main object on display, the forest itself, and oriented the design of the show to its particular features. It is divided into in six sub-themes: Concepts and objectives, Ways into nature, Venerable and opulent, Traces, Research and Gateway to the forest. The many layers of the display enact dramas whose props are objects, models, images, media presentations and games, and the emotional and poetic production captivates a heterogeneous viewership, from children to nature lovers.