burdened landscape

from kiefer to ristelhueber

Auschwitz, Lampedusa and Aleppo… these places are seared into our collective consciousness. History has also left its mark in art. For Anselm Kiefer, all of Germany as a landscape is contaminated. The exhibition includes his work Bilder-Streit. Using his characteristic materials such as linoleum, oil paints, sand and jute, he expresses his need for a new German identity. Where Kiefer depicts a quest, Sophie Ristelhueber literally records the traces of conflict. Her work Fait portrays the almost serene remains of the first Gulf War in Kuwait.

Burdened landscapes also play a role in new art forms, as the rapper M.I.A. demonstrates in Borders. In this video clip, desperate refugees try to climb a high fence. Sometimes the depicted landscape appears to be innocent and it is history that gives it meaning. With the title Road to Auschwitz, Hannah Collins attributes a sinister significance to what appears to be a quiet country road.

The exhibition Loaded landscape: from Kiefer to Ristelhueber shows how artists can transform the traces of war and conflict into a metaphor for humanity. The exhibition will show work of Francis Alÿs, Armando, Hans Citroen, Hannah Collins, Ori Gersht, Charles Heller en Lorenzo Pezzani, Marcel van Hoorn, Anselm Kiefer, Mathieu Knippenbergh, M.I.A., Raquel Maulwurf, Johan Nieuwenhuize, Olphaert den Otter, Karin Peulen and Sophie Ristelhueber.

Image header: Bilder-Streit, Anselm Kiefer, 1980, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam