Wanås Konst partner museum for the sculpture biennale Blickachsen 12 in Bad Homburg, Germany

The Wanås Foundation has the pleasure to announce that the sculpture park Wanås Konst is the partner museum for the sculpture biennial Blickachsen in Bad Homburg outside Frankfurt and thus follows in the footsteps of former partners such as Foundation Beyeler, Basel, Fondation Maeght, Nice, Yorkshire Sculpture Park, Leeds and Middelheim Museum, Antwerp. Elisabeth Millqvist and Mattias Givell, joint directors of Wanås Konst in Sweden, have been invited to co-curated this year’s Blickachsen 12 together with founder Christian K. Scheffel. This spring the German Sculpture Biennale Blickachsen takes place for the twelfth time in the historic parks of Bad Homburg. Participating artists include William Forsythe and Yoko Ono, whose works are also permanently on view in the sculpture park Wanås Konst in Sweden. Blickachsen 12 in Bad Homburg will open on May 26 and runs until October 6, 2019.

Jeppe Hein, 1-Dimensional Mirror Mobile, 2009. Courtesy KÖNIG GALERIE, Berlin, 303 GALLERY, New York, and Galleri Nicolai Wallner, Copenhagen. Photo Andreas Omvik. 

About Blickachsen 12 and the collaboration with Wanås Konst
As a living platform for the presentation of three-dimensional art, the Blickachsen Sculpture Biennale makes works of the most varied artistic positions freely available to all, both in a dialogue with each other and with their surroundings. To ensure ever new perspectives and artistic impulses, Christian K. Scheffel, founder and curator of the Biennale and director of the Blickachsen Foundation, organizes each new exhibition together with a different international partner institution. Scheffel is delighted to announce that the Swedish Wanås Konst sculpture park has accepted his invitation to co-present this year’s Blickachsen 12 exhibition. He describes Elisabeth Millqvist and Mattias Givell, who have been directors of this renowned institution since 2011, as ideal partners for the exhibition: “Wanås Konst shares our focus on the interplay in a historical location, between contemporary art and the natural surroundings – with the aim of offering a multiplicity of potential experiences to an interested general public”.

“It is with pleasure that Wanås Konst takes on the role of being the partner museum for the twelfth Blickachsen”, says Elisabeth Millqvist, also on behalf of Mattias Givell, and adds: “We look forward, with Blickachsen 12 and together with Christian Scheffel, to opening new perspectives on sculpture and its vital contribution to society, by inviting artists from different continents and at the same time sharing our special knowledge of the Nordic art scene and specifically our program at Wanås Konst”.

For Blickachsen 12, Givell and Millqvist have invited some artists that are familiar from Wanås Konst in Sweden. Yoko Ono will be bringing her celebrated Wish Trees to Bad Homburg. In this project, which the artist has developed since 1996, visitors are invited to write their wishes on slips of paper and hang them on trees specifically chosen for the exhibition. Gradually, the notes cover the foliage like white blossoms. After the exhibition is over, the artist will archive these wishes in the Imagine Peace Tower, together with wishes from all over the world. Only by looking upwards can one appreciate the astonishing work of the Swedish artist Anne Thulin: giant red balls seem to have bounced up into the treetops in which they sit, shifting our focus onto the green canopy of leaves as a vital part of the park. The American artist William Forsythe, who is known around the world for his “choreographic objects”, is creating two location-specific works for this year’s exhibition.

Characteristic from their work at Wanås Konst in Sweden, Givell and Millqvist take with them a broad perspective on sculpture, collaboration with artists all over the world and a special knowledge of the Nordic art scene. Although the Blickachsen exhibition focuses on existing works, a more site-specific approach will permeate the biennale in 2019. The artist list also includes Jeppe Hein, Kaarina Kaikkonen, Arik Levy, Nandipha Mntambo and Winter / Hoerbelt. More information and full artist list will be available in spring 2019.

Blickachsen 12 – Bad Homburg, Tyskland
Exhibition Period: May 26 – October 6, 2019
Opening: Sunday May 26, 2019 at 11.30am in Bad Homburg, Germany
Participating Artists: William Forsythe, Jeppe Hein, Kaarina Kaikkonen, Arik Levy, Nandipha Mntambo, Yoko Ono, Anne Thulin, Winter/Hoerbelt et al.
Curators: Elisabeth Millqvist, Mattias Givell and Christian Scheffel
Partner Museum: Wanås Konst – The Wanås Foundation

About Blickachsen 12
Blickachsen is an exhibition of contemporary sculpture and installations by leading as well as promising international artists which takes place throughout the summer every two years in the historical parks of Bad Homburg von der Höhe and other locations throughout the Rhine-Main region.

With each new exhibition the specific placing of modern works in this classical setting offers stunning new perspectives on both the works themselves and on the original “Blickachsen”, or “lines of vision”, designed for the gardens by the celebrated nineteenth-century landscape artist Peter Joseph Lenné who was also behind the parks surrounding Sanssouci in Potsdam. The rich and ever-changing interplay between landscape and art lies at the heart of this unique series of exhibitions. www.blickachsen.com

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Program at Wanås Konst –The Wanås Foundation 2019

Tits N Ass
The Design Studion Butler/Lindgård (SE)
Curator: Malin Gustavsson
Exhibition Period: March 2 – April 29, 2019
In the Art Gallery at Wanås Konst

Not A Single Story II
Exhibition Period: May 5 – November 3, 2019
Opening: Sunday May 5, 2019
Participating artists: Latifa Echakhch, Peter Geschwind & Gunilla Klingberg, Lungiswa Gqunta, Lubaina Himid, Marcia Kure, Santiago Mostyn and Anike Joyce Sadiq
Curators: Elisabeth Millqvist and Mattias Givell
In the Art Gallery and the Sculpture Park

External Exhibition 2019

Blickachsen 12 – Bad Homburg, Tyskland
Exhibition Period: May 26 – October 6, 2019
Opening: Sunday May 26, 2019 at 11.30am in Bad Homburg, Germany
Participating Artists: William Forsythe, Jeppe Hein, Kaarina Kaikkonen, Arik Levy, Nandipha Mntambo, Yoko Ono, Anne Thulin, Winter/Hoerbelt et al.
Curators: Elisabeth Millqvist, Mattias Givell and Christian Scheffel
Partner Museum: Wanås Konst – The Wanås Foundation

More information on our 2019 program to be released spring 2019.

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Visit Wanås

Wanås Konst – The Wanås Foundation, Wanås, SE-289 90 Knislinge, Sweden
Wanås Konst – The sculpture park with the collection is open daily 10am – 5pm all year round. 

Wanås Konst – Art Gallery, Shop & Deli – for opening hours please see the website www.wanaskonst.se
Wanås Restaurant Hotel – please see website www.wanasrh.se



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 Konst – Center for Art & Learning, presents and communicates contemporary art that challenges and redefines society, working outside in the landscape around Wanås in Skåne, southern Sweden. The permanent collection in the sculpture park is complemented with a program of temporary exhibitions, both outdoors and in the Art Gallery, and events such as guided tours, artists’ talks, performances and workshops engaging a wide audience. Wanås Konst produces site-specific international art and learning in an innovative and accessible way.

The collection in the sculpture park has 70 permanent works, created specifically for The Wanås Foundation – Wanås Konst by artists such as Igshaan Adams, Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, William Forsythe, Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Yoko Ono and Robert Wilson et al. Since 1987 more than 300 artists have taken part in exhibitions. The sculpture park covers 40 ha and is explored on foot. A visit including the current program, the Art Gallery and the collection takes from 2,5 h to 4h. Additional special walks and activities are available depending on program and season. The sculpture park has approximately 80 000 visitors per year and 12 000 children take part in educational activities.

Wanås Konst is run by The Wanås Foundation, a non-profit foundation created in 1994, in Östra Göinge municipality, in the South of Sweden, 1.5 h from Copenhagen, Denmark. Founding Director Marika Wachtmeister initiated the art projects at Wanås in 1987. Since 2011 the foundation is led by Elisabeth Millqvist and Mattias Givell. Wanås Konst is part supported by state, regional and municipal funding, part self financed, as well as supported by private foundations and sponsors. Read more on the website www.wanaskonst.se

Wanås is a place in the world where art, nature and history meet. At Wanås the sculpture park Wanås Konst, Wanås Restaurant Hotel and Wanås Estate coexist and a private 15thcentury castle is also found on site. Wanås Konst is part of European Land + Art Network (ELAN) and Wanås is a Long Run Destination – a leader in sustainable development within the tourism industry, community development and cultural management. More information on the website www.wanas.se

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