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Footprints

Tue Greenfort, Milk Heat (2009)

The relationship between nature and the human subject (or nature subjected to humans) is hardly a novel focus for an exhibition, but it is currently being addressed more often and with newfound fervour by several survey shows. Every summer since 1987 the Wanås Foundation has organized an exhibition of international contemporary art, and this year’s show, ‘Footprints’, curated by Marika Wachtmeister and Elna Svenle, marks the beginning of a new, greener profile for the foundation. Based on an old estate in the south of Sweden, this white medieval castle sits in the midst of a leafy sculpture park, an organic farm and an indoor exhibition space – the Konsthall – which is housed in an old barn. Six artists have contributed work to ‘Footprints’, which is installed in both the Konsthall and the surrounding park.

It would be easy to present idealistic solutions in this verdant setting, and most of the artists certainly veer towards the prescriptive side of Utopianism. For example, Tue Greenfort’s What About Milk (2009) comprises an installation of empty milk cartons piled on a pallet on the floor. Of the 150-something cartons, which are intended to represent the average Swede’s annual consumption, only a small percentage are organic. This is paired with an outdoor work, Milk Heat (2009), a radiator that allows visitors to experience the natural temperature of fresh milk (38 degrees) before it is cooled to four degrees to be shipped to the dairy. These illustrations of the excesses of consumption and the energy-consuming dairy industry, organic or not, may be small in scale but they quietly propose the need for new approaches.

Henrik Håkansson, MAR.3,2009 (Alces alces) (2009)

Equally concerned with site-specificity, Henrik Håkansson’s (Chronicles) Wanås, Mar.02, 2009-May.03, 2009 (2009) is a collection of photographs of animals taken by a motion-sensitive camera installed on the castle grounds. His outdoor work, The Reserve (001) (2009), is a demarcated 2,500-metres-square section of land allowed to remain untouched and free to grow wild. While most of the works in the show represent brief disruptions in time and space, Håkansson’s reserve involves a durational aspect and permanently lays claim to a piece of castle ground, not to be set foot on by anyone.

Tea Mäkipää, 1:1 (2004)

A short walk from the protected area, Tea Mäkipää’s 1:1 (2004) is a slanted architectural skeleton of pipes and wires towers among the trees and is an amusing yet accurate rendition of the electrical and plumbing anatomy of an ordinary apartment. Conversely, her 10 Commandments for the 21st Century – which includes pronouncements such as ‘Do not fly’ and ‘Do not produce more than two children’ – borders on the straightforwardly imperious. This work is paired with a film of the artist’s journey, by land, from Germany to the Sharjah Biennial for which this work was commissioned in 2007.

Nilsmagnus Sköld, No More Shall We Part (2009)

Fortunately, other works provide antidotes to the often didactic tone of ‘Footprints’. In the comparatively ambiguous No More Shall We Part (2009) Swedish artist Nilsmagnus Sköld takes a more evocative, narrative approach. Sköld has documented his excavation of a greenhouse which was abandoned when the owner died 35 years ago and has remained untouched since. The large photographs are mounted on the walls while cracked clay pots and pieces of broken glass are placed on two tables in the centre of the room, bear witness to the process of culture – the carefully groomed orchids in the greenhouse – becoming overgrown, and returning to nature. The installation also comprises audio clips, historical news recordings from 1974 onwards, further emphasizing the passage of time.

Tomas Saraceno, 3x12MW / Flying Garden / Air-Port-City (2007)

In a similar vein, Tomas Saraceno’s 3×12MW / Flying Garden / Air-Port-City (2007) is more suggestive than moralizing. The transparent bubbles filled with rootless plants hanging from the tall trees on a mound in the park are part of Saraceno’s ongoing ‘Air-Port-City’ project, an ecologically-motivated exploration of the possibilities of living suspended above the earth’s surface. ‘Footprints’ ultimately succeeds in visualizing rather than problematicizing such issues. Sometimes that can be sufficient, but offering up clear-cut solutions is a precarious business – the more speculative of the works may in the end provide better answers.

Christine Antaya