Hiding in the Wolf’s Lair

Republic of Amsterdam Radio teamed up with Nomad Tinker House to create our first ever light art installation, Hiding in the Wolf’s Lair, which was featured in Amsterdam Light Festival #8 (28 November 2019 - 19 January 2020).

Hiding in the Wolf’s Lair was installed at the rear of Amsterdam Artis Zoo on the Plantage Muidergracht, opposite De Groene Olifant on Sarphatistraat. The piece shows four ominously glowing wolves roaming free around the zoo grounds, while a group of silhouetted figures hide from them in the attic of one of the zoo buildings.

The theme for Edition #8 of Amsterdam Light Festival was 'Disrupt', so our piece is based on what we believe to be the most disruptive event in Amsterdam's history, the Second World War. During the occupation, around 250-300 people hid in Amsterdam Artis Zoo to escape from Nazi persecution. Among them were Jews, resistance fighters, young men who didn't want to get sent to forced labour camps in Germany, and even entire families.

They hid in administration buildings, in storage rooms and even in animal exhibits, such as the monkey rock, the bear palace and the wolf house and were kept alive with the help of zoo staff. Amazingly, nobody who hid in the zoo was ever caught, which is even more remarkable given that Artis was one of the favourite places for occupying soldiers to visit in Amsterdam.

As a companion to this art piece, we created a special episode of our History of the Netherlands podcast, in which we interviewed the former director of Artis, Maarten Frankenhuis, and delved deeper into the stories of Artis during the war and the people who hid there, and even how he himself was born into hiding during the war.

Are you interested in knowing more about Hiding in the Wolf’s Lair or displaying the artwork in your museum or exhibition? Please contact us at info@republicofamsterdamradio.com.