ART CITIES:Budapest-Branches Nature Art Variations

Ahmad Nadalian, Order of nature cape Aghulus South Africa, 2008, Courtesy Kunsthalle BudapestThe borderlines in art history are at times bound to be vague. As culture was perceived to have come into its own, the ancient phenomenon of nature art (see Stonehenge) was defined as one of the main branches of the fine arts, associated with body and environmental art, while retaining openness to other ideas.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Kunsthalle Budapest Archive

Our most ordinary signs, such as a spiral or a hexagon, are forms borrowed from nature in the broadest meaning of the word. Is isolation that has dominated art for centuries and is only lifted when artists go out into nature, the last time in the middle of the 20th Century with the Land Art Movement. Artists all over the world, present their work at the exhibition “Branches: Nature art-Variations” at Kunsthalle Budapest, many of them working in situ. The works differ in their geological and regional characteristics at best weaving together the human and the natural through their understanding and complementing of changing nature, inserting them into the tissue of culture. The exhibition is divided into several chapters. Small Gestures presents important works by international and Hungarian contemporary nature art, while Alliance with Nature reviews the events that led up to nature art in Hungary, and Eco-avantgarde is an inspiring Iranian section exploring the relationship between art and the living environment today. Among the artists are: Bob Verschueren from Belgium and Nils-Udo from Germany, whose nature artworks, now referred to as classics, are familiar to Hungarian audiences from previous exhibitions. Works installed outside the walls of the Kunsthalle but forming an integral part of the exhibition include nature art works to be seen in the garden of the Gödöllő Applied Arts Workshop, and Alois Lindenbauer’s Growing Boat in the park of the Nádasdy Palace in Nádasdladány.

Info: Curators: John K. Grande, Katalin Keserü & Mahmoud Maktabi, Kunsthalle Budapest, Dózsa György út 37, Heroes square, Budapest, Duration 27/7-16/10/16, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sat 10:00-18:00, Thu 12:00-20:00, www.mucsarnok.hu

R. Litwiniuk, Tower – Kozlowka Poland, 2012, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest
R. Litwiniuk, Tower – Kozlowka Poland, 2012, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest

 

 

R. Litwiniuk, Transition – India, 2011, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest
R. Litwiniuk, Transition – India, 2011, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest

 

 

R. Litwiniuk, Two Towers – Gdansk Poland, 2015, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest
R. Litwiniuk, Two Towers – Gdansk Poland, 2015, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest

 

 

Chris Booth, 13 Kmm Complete 037r, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest
Chris Booth, 13 Kmm Complete 037r, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest

 

 

Miklya Gabor, Cseppek (Detail), 2009, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest
Miklya Gabor, Cseppek (Detail), 2009, Courtesy Kunsthalle Budapest