Curated by Antonie Angerer and
Anna-Viktoria Eschbach
Landscape, as such, does not exist. It
is made up and never neutral. The artistic representation of nature is closely
linked with the social perception of the natural world. This is a two-way
process: society draws its ideas about how to view and experience nature from
the conventions of visual culture, while at the same time artists reflect and
react to current societal attitudes to the environment. The contemporary
understanding of landscape includes the sense of it as 'an ideological tool shaping
the way in which we envision and construct the natural world.'
As a genre and topic, landscape looms
large in the history of both Chinese and Western art. When it comes to China, landscape painting has been called "China's
greatest contribution to the art of the world", and owes its special
character to the Taoist tradition in Chinese culture. William Watson notes,
that "It has been said that the role of landscape art in Chinese painting
corresponds to that of the nude in the west, as a theme unvarying in itself,
but made the vehicle of infinite nuances of vision and feeling".
Through the history the depiction of
landscape, both in China and the west, it has become linked to aesthetic experience and a locus of
anxiety and ethical debate. Art works in this matter do not merely portray, but
also highlight current social or environmental issues and the complex
relationship between humans and nature. Landscape art often emerges from, and
contributes to, active involvements with ¡°real landscape¡±. The notion of the
¡°real¡± in the 21st century cannot ignore the reality of the growing big city as
a cultural or virtual landscape that forms a background for everyday life. All
these notions are used by the artists and reveal how we project our desires
from and into landscapes.
The installations, photographs, videos,
and sound installations of the exhibition TAKE IN NATURE compile the diverse
ways in which contemporary artists use the motif of nature to examine, challenge,
and re-define the concept of landscape not simply as an object to be seen, but
as an instrument of cultural forces.