Animals of the canals

Keep an eye out

From busy canals to quiet gardens, animals can be found all over the city. Sometimes they’re hidden, concealed or on the move, but they’re always nearby. And that’s exactly what makes it so wonderful – the more carefully you look, the more you discover. Animals bring movement and life to the city. You'll find that there really isn't one animal too many in this city; everything has found its place in the remarkable urban ecosystem. Some animals even have a clear function in the city. Whether they help with recycling waste or cleaning the canal water, they ensure the right balance together with us humans.

Typical characters

In this exhibition, we give the animals that live here their own character, sometimes with typical Amsterdam traits. For instance, the ring-necked parakeet is a noisy neighbour, the mute swan a flâneur, and the bullhead a night owl. We give them human traits because it helps us understand them better and to recognize a bit of ourselves in them.

Animals as inspiration

In addition there is contemporary, animal-inspired art on display from Hanneke Giezen (ceramic artist), Tobias Asser (visual artist), and Isabella Rozendaal (photographer).