BIENNALS:ARoS Triennial 2017
Entitled “THE GARDEN – End of Times; Beginning of Times” the first ARoS Triennial focus on depictions of nature throughout history and features works by a range of internationally recognised visual artists, as well as young, emerging artists. The Triennial is in three parts: “The Past”, “The Present” and “The Future”, which form the structural framework of the exhibition. “The Past” examines man’s relationship with nature as seen from an artistic and historical perspective, “The Present” looks at the status of nature here and now, and “The Future” explores the artistic reaction to environmental changes.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: ARoS Triennial Archive
The first part: “The Past” presents a number of works illustrating man’s relationship with nature at various points in time: from the powerful orchestration of the baroque garden, the mathematically constructed landscapes of neo-classicism, and the sensuous gardens of the rococo to the monumental use of nature in land art projects and modern man’s impact on nature portrayed in contemporary art. “The Present” and “The Future” are located on the roof of ARoS, in the heart of Aarhus, at the Natural History Museum, Aarhus, in the park, Mindeparken, at the local nightclub Shen Mao, in several warehouses on the city’s industrial harbour, and along a coastal stretch from Tangkrogen to Ballehage. With site-specific installations, these two parts of the ARoS Triennial create a variety of takes on the garden and nature as contradictory places characterised by complex cultural differences. Common to all the artists taking part is their approach to the garden as materiality and mythology with symbolic and historical siginificance and changeability. The central element in “The Present” is the impossible task of capturing the contemporaneous in a fragmented reality where the grand narratives and the illusory idea of being able to contain the world in a collective narrative have foundered. Where “The Present” takes stock of the global reality of our lives at this precise moment in time, “The Future” seeks to unfold the new challenges facing humanity on the threshold of what has been termed the Anthropocene epoch. This is an epoch which punctures our preconception of man’s special position in relation to nature and of nature as a passive romantic entity. Choice of artists: Edvard Munch, Paul Gauguin, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Max Liebermann, Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Jean Arp, René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico, Robert Smithson, Joan Jonas, Richard Long, Diana Thater, Meg Webster, Olafur Eliasson, Damián Ortega, Darren Almond, and Pamela Rosenkranz, Cyprien Gaillard, Mark Dion, Elmgreen & Dragset, Doug Aitken, Katharina Grosse, Alicja Kwade, Sarah Sze, Tacita Dean, Yto Barrada and Superflex.
Info: Curators Erlend G. Høyersten, Lise Penningtonand, Jakob Vengberg Sevel and Marie Nipper, Exhibition Coordinators: Anne Mette Thomsen and Ellen Drude Skeel Langvold, ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aros Allé 2, Aarhus & various venues in Aarhus, Duration: “The Past” (at ARoS): 8/4-22/10/17, “The Present” (in the city): 3/6-30/7/17, “The Future” (along the coast): 3/6-30/7/17, http://en.arostriennial.dk
