With works by Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Danielle Dean, Rackstraw Downes, Anton Egloff, Hamish Fulton, Nancy Graves, Michael Heizer, Richard Long, Robert Morris, Robert Smithson and Alan Sonfist
In 2004, the American artist Alan Sonfist writes: “I would twist my body into the hollow of the oak, as my hands became the leaves”. This note serves as impetus for this exhibition with works from the Ludwig Forum collection, which deal in different ways with the conditions, the treatment or the appropriation of land(scape): How do artists approach the traces that humankind leaves in the natural environment from the late 1960s to the present? How do artists document their encounters with the world of animals and plants? How do they process human interference in landscapes which are increasingly influenced by industrial and market interests. How can narratives shape the perception of the environment?
With works of Land Art, as well as painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and video art, the exhibition presents artistic consideration of landscape as a bearer of traces of the past and present; as a lens through which changes and the complex relationship between humans and the environment become visible.
Curated by Wiebke Wiesner
Credits: Alan Sonfist, Hand and Leaf, 1976, Ludwig Collection, Loan Peter and Irene Ludwig Foundation, Photo: Ludwig Forum Aachen