Performing Landscapes Lab

Performing Landscapes Laboratorium

Art, nature and humans in an ecological threesome drama
SEMINAR
Thurs. 26 January 09.30-19.00
Fri. 27 January 09.30-19.00
William Wains Gade 11, Refshaleøen, 1432 Copenhagen K

 

26-27 January, Metropolis invited you to Performing Landscapes Laboratory and puts the question:

What is the role and the potential of art in a time of acute ecological crisis?

The programme will feature approx. 40 invited artists, curators, researchers and writers focusing on the relationship between art, nature, landscape and the human. How can we live and create more sustainably, meaningfully and in balance with our surroundings?

 

VIDEO DOCUMENTATION

26 JANUARY – read more about participants and talks 

INSPIRATION (in English)

  • Nils Ole Bubandt, Prof. at University of Aarhus, author of Antropocæn – historien om verden af i morgen and editor of Arts of living on a Damaged Planet 

  • Susan Ballard, art historian at University of Wellington, author of Art and Nature in the Anthropocene

  • Herman Bashiron Mendolicchio, researcher, writer, editor and curator, University of Barcelona, co-author of Art in Context – Learning from the field, Art and Mobility and Walking Art / Walking Aesthetics

PRACTICE (in Danish or English)

REFLECTIONS (in Danish)

PERSPECTIVES (in English)

  • Emily Eliza Scott, University of Oregon, editor of The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change

  • Nikolaj Schultz, sociologist and co-author with Bruno Latour of On the emergence of an ecological class

27 JANUARY – read more about participants and talks

INSPIRATION (in English)

 

  • Maria Kjær Themsen, art editor at Information and author of Berørt – om dansk kunst i det nye årtusinde

 

PRACTICE (in Danish or English)

 

REFLECTIONS (in Danish)

 

PERSPECTIVES (in English)

  • Julie Reiss, art historian, editor of Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene

  • Mark Cheetham, Prof. at University of Toronto, author of Landscape into Eco Art

  • Kirsten Swenson, Prof. at University of Massachusetts, Lowell, editor of Critical Landscapes: Art, Space and Politics

 

ARTICLE

ISCENE joined the laboratory and wrote:

Metropolis’ Performing Landscapes Laboratory opened up a number of important debates and insights into artistic potentials, which put the focus on art’s multifaceted range of possibilities.

There was a pervasive desire from a broad field of researchers and artists to create change. To create new views of the outside world, strengthen the relationship to the connectedness of things and open our senses to new ways of being in the world. There is no doubt that there is a long way to go and that it is an uphill battle to bring about change – but it is urgent and the laboratory clearly showed that art is part of the solution. But it requires change, and it costs on the personal account, as Trine Rytter Andersen made clear:

“We must set aside our own needs for the living world. This day is like an injection of salt water, so we are ready to take another stab at the living world.”

Read the article here (in Danish).

Performing Landscapes Lab

 

INTO THE LANDSCAPE

Performing Landscapes Lab was a field laboratory that linked practice and theory. Professionals from home and abroad reflected on how art and artists currently react and act against the backdrop of the current state of the globe, while a number of artists invited us to take part in their artistic practice to give some form and sensorial experience as to what we speak about – to let us feel on our own bodies what art can do.

In the afternoon, we collected the day’s experiences and contributions in open, reflective conversations to get a sense of the larger perspectives and clearer contexts.

Performing Landscapes Lab

       


      BACKGROUND

      The laboratory is based on the three-year project Metropolis Landskab, supported by the Nordea Foundation, and draws on experience from Walking Landscapes 2021 and Talking Landscapes 2022 and points towards Performing Landscapes 2023, a series of artistic productions in 10 landscapes across the country during the summer.

  • Photos: Marine Gastineau

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