Meet Kidogo, a 12-year-old silverback gorilla brought to the Krefeld Zoo in Krefeld, Germany last April to serve as a male companion to two female gorillas, Muna and Oya, in hopes that they will eventually create some little infant gorillas. It turns out that Kidogo is interested in more than just hanging out with the ladies. He’s also got a serious knack for tightrope walking.

“He is unbelievably athletic and acrobatic,” says Petra Schwinn, director of public relations at the zoo in western Germany. “He is still young and playful. He really demonstrates a strong degree of joie de vivre.”

Head over to Der Spiegel to view the complete photo gallery of King Kodo, as he has come to be known, doing what he does best: being awesome.

Photo by Magnus Neuhaus/Zoo Krefeld

[via Neatorama]

Michael Grab is a land artist who “creates astonishing towers and orbs of balanced rocks using little more than patience and an astonishing sense of balance. Grab says the art of stone balancing has been practiced by various cultures around the world for centuries and that he personally finds the process of balancing to be therapeutic and meditative.” 

Over the past few years of practicing rock balance, simple curiosity has evolved into therapeutic ritual, ultimately nurturing meditative presence, mental well-being, and artistry of design. Alongside the art, setting rocks into balance has also become a way of showing appreciation, offering thanksgiving, and inducing meditation. Through manipulation of gravitational threads, the ancient stones become a poetic dance of form and energy, birth and death, perfection and imperfection.

Head over to Colossal to view more of Michael’s awesome artwork and then visit his portfolio to see some more. You’ll also find videos of him working over on YouTube.

[via Colossal]

From the Department of Awesome Natural Wonders comes this impressive geological formation - an enormous rock perfectly balanced atop a smooth mound. Located deep inside the forests of Finland, the balancing rock is called Kummakivi:

“There is still no scientific explanation for how the rock, whose given name translates as ‘strange rock’ in Finnish, has wound up in such a perplexing position.”

However it happened, it’s a pretty awesome sight. But we don’t recommend standing under it for too long.

[via My Modern Metropolis]

Beijing-based photographer and performance artist Li Wei (previously featured here) doesn’t use any photo manipulation trickery to create awesome self-portraits like these astronaut shots. Instead he relies on carefully placed wires and a finely-tuned sense of balance. 

Visit My Modern Metropolis to view more of Li Wei’s playful photography. 

You may already be familiar with Rock Balancing, the art of balancing rocks on top of one another without resorting to any tricks, such as wires, adhesives, or hidden supports. But have you ever heard of bread balancing? We hadn’t, but now that we have, we think it’s pretty awesome.

Conceived by Barcelona-based graphic designers Ana Dominguez and Omar Sosa for Apartamento magazine; the series was shot by photographer Nacho Alegre. The precariously balanced towers of asymmetrical loaves are beautiful and give us a powerful hankering for toast.

[via My Modern Metropolis]

This delightful tightrope-walking elephant was created by Paris-based artist Anastassia Elias (previously featured here) for Le Génie des Jardins. 54 different artists were invited to create outdoor pieces of unexpected artwork. Four public gardens in Paris then hosted the art over the course of a week at the end of September. 

Tightrope, Anastassia Elias’ beautiful piece, was created using lots of thread and, we imagine, a great deal of patience. When viewed up close the balancing Pachyderm reveals its chaotic mass of components threads. The piece measures 6.5 x 5 feet and was installed in Colbert Square.

[via My Modern Metropolis]