Nature - Creation is not finished!
6. May 2009, 10:41:39 unter: Admont, Austria, Exhibitions, German, Museums, Podcasts, Stift Admont, VideoThe border between nature and culture is a tectonic faultline of human self-understanding. For example, when humanism seeks to tame the animal instinct in people, this can be understood as a tectonically preventive measure on the level of cultural history. When humans dabble in creation regarding nature, the foundations of both sides sometimes clash. The resulting tremor can then be so large that it raises a mountain of questions, which are often so disturbing that they force us to reinvestigate the notion of being human.
The exhibition, “Nature - Creation is not finished!”, at the Monastery of Admont, looks at the boundaries and dissolution of boundaries between nature and culture. However, the artistic directions of the exhibition are not limited to earthquake faultlines. Rather than becoming fixed on the precariousness of the boundary, a multiplicity of different presentations of nature becomes evident. The artistic handling of creation is more playful.
Nature is the theme behind featured artworks such as Christoph Lingg’s idle industrial fields, which are shown as the backyards of our affluent society, and Gabriele Schöne’s paintings, which deal with the disappearance of nature. However, nature itself is also seen as a lively medium of artistic expression in the exhibition. The motifs in Edgar Lissels’s photographs arise from the photo-tactical characteristic of cyanobacteria to race towards the light. Wilhelm Scherübls’s watercolors function through the mechanisms of frost patterns. In Thomas Baumann’s installation, an artificial iceberg develops during the period of the exhibition.
CastYourArt met the curator of the exhibition, Michael Braunsteiner, and asked him about the overlying concept of the exhibition. The artists Wilhelm Scherübl and Günther Pedrotti were also present and reflected on their creative approach to nature in the interview. (wh/jn)
The Museum at the Monastery of Admont will be exploring the theme of “Nature - Creation is not finished!” through November 8th, the current exhibition in the contemporary art section runs until the end of May.
