Opening: 26th of July 2019, 5pm
Exhibition: Aug. - Sept. 2019
Stiftsteiche, 4490 St. Florian
with
- Catrin Bolt
- Anita Fuchs
- Markus Hiesleitner
- Daniela Krajčová
- Nicole Krenn
- David Leitner
- Klara Paterok
- Patricia J. Reis
- Franz Tišek
- Lukas Walcher
Curatore: Lenka Kukurová
2019
During the summer months of 2019 the Kulturdrogerie, an artist-run-space in the 18th district of Vienna, relocates the idea of the living "social sculpture" to St. Florian in the countryside.
The project Flora Pondtemporary at the St. Florianer Stiftsteiche allows to temporarily compensate the contrasts of city and country, space and density, tradition and trend.
The publicly accessible site of the St. Florianer Stiftsteiche in the town centre of St. Florian offers area and space for the Flora Pondtemporary project. The two hectare fishpond area of the St. Florianer Stiftsteiche enable working in nature and with nature: it is an experimental space and open-air studio for the curator and the artists.
In addition to the new site-specific works created at the fishponds, works created at the Kulturdrogerie in Vienna will also be presented at Flora Pondtemporary.
The project is open to the public from the beginning and welcomes visitors at any time in order to ensure a lively exchange between the artists and the interested public. The works, which will be realized during the project, will be permanently exhibited on the site, they will form a site-specific art collection in St. Florian, which is intended to stimulate a dialog.
Flora Pondtemporary
TheFlora Pondtemporaryexhibition is an art event taking place for the first time in 2019 next totheponds of the monasteryin St. Florian,. Here art is presentedin an unusual situation, not in the gallery or in the streets of the city, but in the midst of the vegetation. Theaudience actually seesmuch more flora than art. And not only people belong to this audience, plants and animals also look at art. The title of the exhibition is a humorous reference to the wordcontemporary art inconnectionwiththe actual location: thepond.
"Pondtemporary Art" is definedby the connectionof art withnature. The works of art use natural materials or elements, but they also reactto the natural environment and relate thematically to the interrelationship of man andnature. One crucialaspect of Flora Pondtemporaryis that the worksdo not compete with the nature, but are exposed to natural processes that change and eventually destroy them over the time.Man has plans, but nature has its own plans that need to be respected.
Art that draws attention to nature and its processes alsoreacts toenvironmental issues that are discussed in today’ssociety. Drought, extreme weather and changes in nature caused by human actionsare no longer an abstract threat, they are aconcrete experience foreach and every one of us.
In the course ofhuman history, especially during the period of Enlightenment, the idea has prevailed that man is autonomous and independent of nature and its environment.Nature was the object of scientific research, but everything the human subject could not understand, because it did not correspond toits logic and reason, was excluded from the cognitive process. It was believedthat reason conqueresthe world, rulesand dominatesnature. The idea of man’s unlimited powerover nature has survived unexpectedly long, and is still represented even today.
However, other schools of thought (for exampleecological philosophy, environmental ethics) bring newperspectives: they perceive nature and man as a interconnectednetwork of elements and relationships. Man is not superior to nature, but is a part ofit. All elements create aharmony with each other and they need each other. The exhibition Flora Pondtemporaryis linked precisely to this understanding of nature: culture and nature are neither in competition norseparated from each other. Here man does not dominate nature, but is in a relationship of respect with nature. This idea is anythingbut new, but is not yet widely accepted. Art could help to change this understanding, because it does not primarily use rationality to perceive the world,italso deals with emotions, dreams and visions. Art can play a role ofa social laboratory ofthe future.
Lenka Kukurová / CURATOR, SK
