Hvilket forhold har vi mennesker til naturen? Både mennesker og natur trues av klimaødeleggelser. Hvilke spor setter dette i samtiden? Og hvordan kommer dette til uttrykk i kunsten? Gruppeutstillingen fra 26. november 2022 til 16. april 2023 i Sal 1 dreier seg om nettopp dette.
In the exhibition “Human Nature”, we seek to show a broad compilation of artists, expressions and media. Artists participating in the exhibition are Ingeborg Annie Lindahl (NO), Tom Kosmo (NO), Adrian Bugge (NO), Maiken Stene (NO), Ingela Ihrman (SE) and Elina Brotherus (FI). The exhibition will, in addition to contemporary art, present works from the museum’s collection which include Gustav Adolph Mordt’s sublime “Two mountain walkers in front of Rjukanfossen” (1847).
Common to all works of art in the exhibition is that they address people’s relationship to, and intervention in, nature in different ways through works that depict our fascination with the nature we surround ourselves with, or man as a small part of a large ecosystem.
Fascination with nature is not a new phenomenon in art history. At the beginning of the 19th century, artists were in many ways the discoverers of Norwegian nature, and created depictions of a violent nature through sublime artworks. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a change in such depictions related to our intervention in nature. Our attempt to tame nature, channel waterfalls through pipes and develop an extensive industry in the heart of Norwegian nature was portrayed as a sign of new and better times. In modern times, human intervention in nature has, among other things, resulted in political art and protest art that thematises nature conservation, climate change and natural disasters.
The major natural disasters of recent years such as the forest fires in Australia and the USA, heat waves, earthquakes, the landslide in Elverum and the huge floods in Germany actualise the exhibition and show how little we have to defend ourselves against the great forces of nature.
The exhibition wants to reflect on questions such as what is beautiful nature – the untouched or cultural landscape? How have depictions of nature and man’s relationship to nature in art changed over time? Buy tickets to Telemark Art Museum
