During Spring 2024, we embarked on an exploration of how the (performing) arts relate to the (performing) landscape. How artists and arts practice and artistic institutions are positioning themselves in a time of absolute concern about the need to change the relationships between the human and the non/more than human in this Anthropocene age.In this process, we have met many artists/producers/curators/managers who are concerned with how to face challenges, grasp opportunities, and perhaps rethink/realign/reuse their position and their skill sets as interpreters of our times.
As the title suggests, we are suggesting turning things around to have another perspective - the perspective of the landscape and of the ecological framework; this is then the first outline of a field of artistic work embedded in an ecological mindset and frame. The individual positions are many and varied. Most of the work is site-specific and situation-specific, critical or considerate and much is dialogical - relating to and with aspects of the landscape and of human interactions; much is exploratory, finding and forming new ways to connect and understand/ address/conceive and explore and much tries to re-establish another relationship with the public as a participant, as a witness, as active co-creators.
A first conclusion may be that this rapidly expanding field of emerging work is far more complex and expansive than we might imagine at first glance in our Nordic-Baltic region.
Although the work is often rooted in individual artistic backgrounds and aesthetics, practices are also rooted in the diverse realities and relationships in every day and in the cultural/ecological framing of where people live and work, so this anthology of life experiences and life expectations this simple listing covers is vast and layered and holds a wealth of embedded knowledge. It is our hope that this simple gathering of material will start to form a collective experience and that this lab will witness the first exchanges of experiences.
The names listed here are primarily sourced through a series of meetings live online in Spring 2024. We will supplement this with already gathered material from our “Metropolis Landscapes” program in Copenhagen/Denmark.
