This year's summer exhibition focuses on the forest and wood in a broad sense, with a particular emphasis on Almindingen. The gallery, located on Bornholm, close to Almindingen—which is Denmark's fifth largest forest—has been motivated to illuminate 'wood and forest' in an artistic context.
There hasn't always been a forest in the area we now call Almindingen. After the end of the last Ice Age, the forest gradually developed naturally in the region. However, since then, human use of the forest area for cultivation, timber harvesting for firewood and lumber, and grazing livestock has repeatedly led to the forest being more or less diminished.
By the year 1800, Almindingen was gone—exhausted! The king decided that the forest should be restored to produce timber for the Danish navy. A young second lieutenant born in Bornholm, Hans Rømer, was assigned the task of reforesting and worked with Almindingen until his death in 1836. Hans Rømer began by enclosing Almindingen with nearly 10 kilometers of stone walls to keep livestock out. For generations, farmers had been accustomed to sending their animals to graze, and they were not pleased with the new times. They protested by destroying the wall in several places and leveling it to the ground.
The story of the reforestation of Almindingen closely resembles the nature crisis we are experiencing in Denmark today. Nature is a resource that we consume and overconsume. How do we measure the value of nature? Who has the right to utilize nature, and how important is biodiversity? Should nature exist for its own sake? Should the purpose of nature be recreational, productive, or spiritual?
Nature and the forest have always been a central motif in art. For the past 200 years, it has been idealized and often romantically depicted, with humanity at the center. This has also influenced the desire of artisans to cultivate nature's materials.
Contemporary art's representation of nature is characterized by the idea of the 'naturalness' of materials, where humanity steps back in the search for an authentic nature. This is seen in contemporary craftsmanship, where the tendency is to present materials as unprocessed as possible.
While artists of earlier times would dominate nature's materials, contemporary artists align themselves with nature.
The exhibition 'Poetry of the Woods - The Call of the Wild' is curated with the desire to showcase artistic diversity in the use, depiction, and description of the forest and the life that exists in and around it.
Artists: Bente Skjøttgaard, Lene Bødker, Mette Saabye, Tyge Axel Holm, Kigge Hvid, Pia Rasmussen, Grethe Wittrock, Lea Nielsen, Kasper Agergaard, Line Depping, Gitte Bjørn, Fensholt & Brandhøj, Pernille Braun, Christina Schou Christensen, Caroline Slotte (FIN), Ingrid Berg (S).
Photos : Kasper Agergaard
