Sculpture and dance, metamorphosis and memento mori – Opening of the New Season in the Sculpture Park at Wanås Konst, May 18–November 2
Skipping ropes and platforms in the tree tops, performances in the Park, Dance Me presents artists that explore movement and ask questions about how everyday life is choreographed. In a series of exhibitions and site specific works, Wanås Konst continues to explore sculpture and the relation between the artwork and the viewer. Through a donation, 12 major sculptures by Swedish neo-dada artist CF Reuterswärd are a new addition in the Sculpture Park. Susan Sontag wrote about the works, titled Interlettre, in “The Unseen Alphabet” in 1983. For the exhibition Unvergessen (Graf Spee III) Jan Håfström, Juan Pedro Fabra Guemberena and Carl Michael von Hausswolff travelled to Montevideo to follow a dark tale to the bottom of the sea.
Tadashi Kawamata Tree Hut Wanas 2014. Dance Me, Wanås Konst 2014. Photo Wanås Konst
Dance Me with Molly Haslund, Christian Jankowski, Tadashi Kawamata, Sigalit Landau, Skånes Dansteater, Rachel Tess, Salla Tykkä
Skipping ropes and platforms in the tree tops, performances in the Park – inside and outside Dance Me presents artists that explore movement, make connections between life and art, and affect both body and mind. The works create awareness of our body. What directs our movements and activities? How is everyday life choreographed? In Dance Me sculpture, dance and choreography meet and merge with works that are solid and ephemeral, intimate and playful.
Tadashi Kawamata has built platforms high up in the trees overlooking the grounds, while Molly Haslund transforms familiar swings and drawing compasses into sculptures for coordinated participation. Elements of play and exercise, rhythm and repetition reappear in the film works of Christian Jankowski, Sigalit Landau and Salla Tykkä. The movement shifts from the external to internal – engaging with our innermost selves and activates feelings of pain, joy and collaboration. Dancer and choreographer Rachel Tess investigates the empathic response to bodies in motion in a confined space. In Souvenir, a mobile choreographic architecture, she invites the audience to both sense and experience the performance from an unusually close vantage point. Skånes Dansteater contributes with performances and actions in the Park that mark the start of a longer collaboration. In a series of exhibitions and site specific works Wanås Konst has explored sculpture and the relation between the artwork and the viewer. Dance Me goes beyond disciplines with choreographic architecture, coordination models and performances.
Revisit 2014 – Unvergessen (Graf Spee III) Jan Håfström (Sweden), Juan Pedro Fabra Guemberena (Sweden/Uruguay), Carl Michael von Hausswolff, (Sweden). In 2007 the artist trio created the installation Graf Spee now on permanent view at Wanås Konst. As a point of departure, they used the story of the German pocket battle ship Admiral Graf Spee, which was scuttled in 1939 outside Uruguay. For the exhibition the artists travelled to Montevideo to follow the story to the bottom of the sea, to face History, themselves and each other.
A few years ago Juan Pedro told me about his grandfather Francisco Guemberena witnessing the event. What deeply affected the anti-fascist Francisco Guemberena was the youth of the sailors. The young dead were not enemies but victims of a brutal political system. (Jan Håfström)
Revisit is a series of exhibitions in the Art Gallery in which artists look back on and develop their works in the permanent collection.
Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd (Sweden) – Interlettre (1984-85) . Poet, writer and artist, Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd has since the 1960s worked with the relationship between images and words. In “The Unseen Alphabet” (1983) Susan Sontag wrote about Interlettre, and the spaces in-between the letters of the alphabet and the numbers – those unseen spaces that normally go unnoticed when we read a text. The CFR Art Foundation generously donated the twelve sculptures of the unseen alphabet now installed in the Park.
Wanås Konst Children’s Book 2014 – Hur man blir en sten Martina Lowden (Sweden) och Klara Kristalova (Czech Republic)
Martina Lowden has written a tale about metamorphoses – about becoming a stone. The nature around Wanås comes alive in artist Klara Kristalova’s images – some of which will escape the pages of the book and appear as sculptures throughout the Park. Each year, new authors and artists collaborate on a children’s book experiment.
Press Opening Thursday May 15
When? Introduction and tour in the Park with Elisabeth Millqvist, artistic director at 1 pm.
Where? The Art Gallery. Press material and copies of the new publication, Wanås Konst #14 available.
Light lunch served in the Café
Open noon – 4 pm
RSVP May 13 to press@wanaskonst.se
Book release at 3 pm Hur man blir en sten Martina Lowden och Klara Kristalova
Wanås Konst/The Wanas Foundation 2014:
Dance Me Molly Haslund, Christian Jankowski, Tadashi Kawamata, Sigalit Landau, Skånes Dansteater, Rachel Tess, Salla Tykkä
Unvergessen (Graf Spee III) Juan Pedro Fabra Guemberena, CM von Hausswolff, Jan Håfström
The Children’s Book Hur man blir en sten , Klara Kristalova, Martina Lowden
Interlettre Carl Fredrik Reuterswärd
Upcoming: FOR GOOD AND FOR BAD Helene Billgren, Grafikens Hus c/o Wanås Konst, June 14 – November 2
Exhibition Season May 18 – November 2, 2014
Opening: May 18, opening ceremony at 3 pm
May 18 – Sep. 28, 11 am – 5 pm daily
Additional opening hours: June 21 – Aug. 17, 10 am – 5 pm daily
Oct. 4 – Nov. 2, 11 am – 5 pm weekends
The park is open daily, year-round, 8 am – 7 pm
Wanås Konst/The Wanas Foundation
Visit: Wanås, SE-289 90 Knislinge, Sweden
Postal address: PO Box 67, SE-289 21 Knislinge, Sweden
For questions and further information, please contact:
Sofia Bertilsson, 46 (0)733 86 68 20, press@wanaskonst.se
Web: www.wanaskonst.se
Newsroom: http://news.cision.com/wanas-konst (download high resolution images)
Wanås is a place in the world where art, nature and history meet. Since 1987 exhibitions of Swedish and international contemporary art have taken place, with a focus on site-specific installations. Today the sculpture park holds more than 50 permanent works, created specifically for Wanås Art by artists such as Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono and Ann-Sofi Sidén et al. Wanås consist of a medieval castle, an organic farm, a scenic sculpture park and an art gallery. Art is also installed in stable and barn buildings from the 18th and 19th centuries.
Wanås Konst is run by The Wanås Foundation. A non-profit foundation in Östra Göinge municipality, in the South of Sweden, only 1.5 h from Copenhagen, Denmark. Founding Director Marika Wachtmeister initiated the art projects at Wanås in 1987. Since 2011 the foundation is lead by Elisabeth Millqvist and Mattias Givell. Read more at www.wanaskonst.se
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