OPEN FIELDS

Art and Agriculture

Image Credits

Location

Art in Public Space

Curators

Elisabeth Fiedler

Co-curators

Jasmin Haselsteiner-Scharner

Show all

About the
Project

The Institute for Art in Public Space Styria combines the realms of art and agriculture with this project. It included 12 sub-project of various international artists and artist collectives and just as many farms in Styria.


OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Reflections on the sensitive and multifaceted interaction between humans and nature have existed since prehistory in the form of art and everyday as well as ritual actions. Today, this theme shapes discourses in the natural sciences and the humanities, especially since we are increasingly reaching the edge of our planet's capacities through the exploitation of natural resources with the help of turbo-capitalist economic growth. The unrestrained acceleration of industry and economy since the industrial revolution — higher, further, faster — ignores the complex relationship between nature and humans, and our dependence on a limited habitat. Only the global catastrophe of climate change makes the vulnerability of taking and giving evident and raises the question of the necessities for our existence.

Agriculture, which has fulfilled and regulated our basic needs since the Neolithic era, and art, which reflects society and confronts it with new possibilities, become tense fields of reference in these reflections. The project OPEN FIELDS – Art and Agriculture focuses on these basic human needs for physical and spiritual nourishment. At the same time, it deals with historical, political and social contexts, new impulses and current approaches. Through the meeting of two apparent opposites, space is given to create something new.

Farmers who are interested in contemporary art were invited to open their farms to international artists from various disciplines such as music, literature, performance, film, digital media, visual arts, etc. These artists spent up to one month on selected farms to develop temporary artworks. This was intended to give space and time for a serious and critical examination of the topics of art and agriculture in mutual respect. The farmers were carefully selected together with the scientific advisor Klaus Schrefler, the artists by an international jury consisting of: Ramesch DahaRobert HöldrichKatrina PetterAndreas Unterweger, and Elisabeth Fiedler as chairwoman.

Participating artists and artist collectives: Astarti AthanasiadouStéphane Verlet BottéroSamuel Collins & Shō Alexander Murayama, Markus HiesleitnerKatharina KlementSujit Mallik, Benjamin Reynolds, Jonathan Omer MizrahiRainer Nöbauer-KammererGeorg NussbaumerGina van der PloegEva Seiler, and Paul Wiersbinski.

Am Foto ist ein Garten mit Gartenstuhl, Steinmauer, Pflanzen, Bäumen. Im Hintergrund sieht man zwei Gebäude. Im Vordergrund ist ein Loch in der Erde, in dem in der Mitte ein Kessel auf einem Dreibein hängt. Rund um das Loch liegt Moos.

Image Credits

All Projects

Event

Rainer Nöbauer-Kammerer

Agricultural Circle | OFFENE FELDER – Kunst und Landwirtschaft

Art in Public Space

06.09.2024

Project

Benjamin Reynolds

Dealer's Way | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Art in Public Space

24.05. - 13.11.2024

Event

Georg Nussbaumer

SILENCE & MUu. An Opera of Stillness and Darkness with Cows and a Grand Piano | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Opening of the project SILENCE & MUu. An Opera of Stillness and Darkness with Cows and a Grand Piano by Georg Nussbaumer in Admont, in the context of OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture.

14.10.2023

Event

Jonathan Omer Mizrahi

Black Milk | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Opening of the project Black Milk by Jonathan Omer Mizrahi in Oberwölz, in the context of OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture.

30.09.2023

Event

Astarti Athanasiadou & Stéphane Verlet Bottéro

Farm/Dance, Feeling/Doing, Focus/Derail (agriculture as embodiment) | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Opening and dance performance by Astarti Athanasiadou & Stéphane Verlet Bottéro in the context of OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture.

02.09.2023

Event

Paul Wiersbinski

Un-Knowing | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Opening of the project Nicht-Wissen / Un-Knowing by Paul Wiersbinski in Pöllau, in the context of OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture.

25.06.2023

Event

Sujit Mallik

Loss of Horizon and Converging Acts | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Opening of the project Loss of Horizon and Converging Acts by Sujit Mallik in Bad Mitterndorf, in the context of OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture.

17.06.2023

Event

Markus Hiesleitner

The great cycle | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Opening of the project The great cycle by Markus Hiesleitner in Groß St. Florian in the context of OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture.

19.05.2023

Project

Katharina Klement

Ecophony – every voice counts. An acoustic soil survey | OPEN FIELDS – Art and Agriculture

Art in Public Space

13.05.2023 - 31.10.2024

Event

Eva Seiler

Se Kuala se | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Opening of the project Se Kuala se by Eva Seiler in the context of OPEN FIELDS – Art and Agriculture.

28.04.2023

Event

Shō Alexander Murayama & Samuel Collins, SOIL WALL GARDEN, 2022

SOIL WALL GARDEN | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Opening of the project SOIL WALL GARDEN by STRL_ (Shō Alexander Murayama and Samuel Collins) in the context of OPEN FIELDS – Art and Agriculture.

15.08.2022

Event

Gina van der Ploeg, Weaving Layers: Knowing where to begin

Weaving Layers: Knowing where to begin | OPEN FIELDS - Art and Agriculture

Opening of the project Weaving Layers: Knowing where to begin by Gina van der Ploeg in Weiz in the context of OPEN FIELDS – Art and Agriculture.

22.07. - 23.07.2022

Exhibition at the Neue Galerie Graz

An exhibition in the Neue Galerie Graz will finally present all twelve OPEN FIELDS projects in one place, opening 5th of December, 2024.

Text: OPEN FIELDS

by Elisabeth Fiedler