in Berlin (Schönleinstr. 25, 10967 Berlin)
Opening: 6th of September, 6 – 9 pm
Exhibition duration: September 6th – October 18th
Curated by Almut Hüfler and Anna Franek
Landscape is a construct. It is the mirror of our soul. Landscape serves as the projection screen for our emotional states and conditions. In literature, dramatic developments are accompanied by storm clouds, while in film, the wind howls around the house when things get eerie. The relationship between humans and their environment is always shaped by their emotional weather. We view the world through the filter of our memories, emotions, and needs. Humanity both needs and exploits nature, consumes it, yet also strives to preserve, cultivate, and recharge within it. Nature has the power to heal—and to threaten. The relationship between humans and nature is complex, ambivalent, and driven by interests and individual awareness.
Moreover, landscape is also a great unknown—it is the space in which we seek to orient ourselves, traverse, and cover distances. Since ancient times, people have looked to the stars for guidance, developed maps, systems, and satellites. The history of cartography itself sheds light on our approach to landscape. It literally and figuratively raises questions about perspective and our position in space. In contemplating landscape, we are confronted with our relationship to nature—a view shaped by the capitalist-driven notion of growth, which now endangers nature significantly.
Layers of Landscape seeks to initiate a conversation through five contemporary approaches—photography, painting, drawing, sculpture, and video—about the different layers of meaning that landscapes offer to the current art discourse. What role does memory play? How do “other worlds,” philosophical concepts, and literary images influence our perception of landscape? What is the deeper significance of artistic strategies in translating space into surface, and what happens at the transitions between surface and space? What psychological processes are addressed and observable in depictions of landscapes? How do the concepts of letting grow and shaping relate to each other, a tension associated with the biblical command to “subdue the earth” and the loss of paradise?
The artists invited to this exhibition bring additional perspectives beyond their artistic training: a photographer, a landscape architect, a cartographer, a world traveler, and a sound and media artist. In this way, within the small space of the Galerie Anna25, a wide-ranging spectrum of approaches to the theme can be showcased, akin to a cabinet of curiosities.
Artist:
Alice Dittmar, Heiko Huber, Kejoo Park, Sten Saarits, Zuzanna Skiba
