curator: Petra Stegmann
“The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness” – such was the observation of Scottish-American naturalist John Muir as far back as 1890, seventy years before artists around the world discovered the forest as a creative space for themselves. The exhibition “THROUGH A FOREST WILDERNESS”, which was presented in Potsdam for a short time only, takes an original look at the artistic works and performances that have come about through the exploration of nature. The focus is on minimal yet often spectacular works of conceptual art, performance, minimal art and Fluxus.
It was for the artists of Central and Eastern Europe, in particular, that the forest functioned as a retreat and an alternative space during the period of the 1960s to 1980s; it became their stage, often serving as the only witness to activities that were prohibited in public cultural life. At the same time, the artists of Western Europe and America were engaged in discovering new territory outside of established and commercialised institutions.
Artists: Artprospekt P.O.P. (SK), Bård Breivik (NO), Aleksandar Battista Ilić mit Ivana Keser und Tomislav Gotovac (HR), Geoffrey Hendricks (US), Bengt af Klintberg (SE), Kollektive Aktionen/Collective Actions (RU), Milan Knížák (CZ), Hilde Krohn Huse (NO), Cecylia Malik (PL), Reiner Maria Matysik (DE), Mieko Shiomi (JP), Petr Štembera (CZ), Kishio Suga (JP), Margita Titlová Ylovsky (CZ), Jiří Valoch (CZ), Robert Watts (US), Vadim Zakharov (RU/DE), Jana Želibská (SK) u.v.a. Ein Projekt von DOWN WITH ART! e.V.