Timo Helgert digital's tour in the world's most touristic places...

For those who were so lucky to be able to walk just for a while in the green, it's impressive to note how much nature, has regained its spaces during these lockdown weeks. What is happening outside our homes these days is literally an "environmental miracle", for which the German artist Timo Helgert has chosen to pay homage to with his project titled "The return of nature".

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Nothing too many complicated or as it would be generally defined as "conceptual", the artist has chosen Instagram as the first sharing channel to immerse his followers in a digitally reconstructed three-dimensional environment, in which architecture and landscapes are completely invaded by the flora and a dreamlike fauna. The cities in lockdown are invaded by expanses of grass and butterflies in flight, Helgert's Spring began inside a subway train (considered one of the symbols of the infection), and then arrived in the arcades of Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II in Milan (in the opening video). And from there it made its way along an imaginary journey, through the most visited places in the world, stripped of all human presence and filled with greenery and peace. Then appear the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Brooklyn Bridge in New York and the Tāj Maḥal in Agra.

To ease fear and focus attention on the positive aspects of this quarantine, the idea behind the project is to provide an alternative to the media bombardment that, in most cases, it is not doing other than fueling collective fear and anxiety. The artist's aim is to instil feelings of hope and inspire everyone who is locked at home with this surreal spectacle of nature. Not only that, I think that this can be another example of how we have to take advantage of this situation to rethink on or future, most of all in the cities,  for when this nightmare will end.

«I see my Instagram page as a playground and laboratory for new ideas and concepts. My fans can expect multiple posts per week and I want it to be very interactive. Many ideas and videos are directly influenced by the comments and reactions of my fan base. The original idea was based on the train and subsequently the subway train cars. I reinvented a number of different urban interiors, from the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele in Milan to the Brooklyn Bridge in New York, the interior of the Prado Museum in Madrid, the Berlin subway. When the blockage of COVID 19 occurred, I felt the isolation and loneliness for the very first time, which must have been very difficult for people in other countries for weeks already. So I thought a lot about this topic and realized that most traditional media are trying to create fear and people are so stressed out. I wanted to resume my existing series of works and make them more beautiful, edifying and stimulating for all of them», explained Helgert.
 

Cover image: Timo Helgert, Eiffel Tour.

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