News — Jul 8, 2011

The relationship between humans and nature has been a source of inspiration for many generations of artists. Organized around recently acquired works by Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács (photo), Zachary Formwalt and Xavier Ribas, Cultured Nature presents video, photography and sculpture expressing very different visions and representations of the artistic genre of landscape and the cultivation of nature. 

Artist duo Broersen & Lukács plunge the viewer into a constructed romantic landscape, while Formwalt critically addresses the connection between picturesque city parks and press and media images. In his video installation, Xavier Ribas shows how food production has radically redefined the landscape of West Friesland. 

Shown alongside these three acquisitions is a selection of works from the collection in which artists construct, analyze and idealize nature and landscape. Cultured Nature traces the development of this theme from the 1970s to the present day. Included areGilbert & George (who often picture themselves against the backdrop of the English landscape), as well as Adam Bartos, Ania Bien, Jan Dibbets, Richard Long andRobert Smithson. A section of the exhibition also highlights contemporary photography by Wout Berger, Jitka Hanzlová, Torbjørn Rødland, Johannes Schwartz and Wolfgang Tillmans. 
Cultured Nature is an associative selection of works from the collection that envision the inspiring, capricious, contradictory and playful relationship between nature and culture.