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Land Art

Land Art – works of art created with nature – will be a prominent feature of Gothenburg Green World. Gothenburg and Mölndal will both be reinterpreted by visiting Land Art artists who are creating a total of seven large installations. Artistic inspiration is provided by Arte Sella, an international network and an open-air gallery in northern Italy that collects leading Land Art from Europe.

Gothenburg Green World is showcasing this exciting form of contemporary art by linking together Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Mölndal City Park and Gunnebo House with very diverse Land Art installations by five artists from the Arte Sella network. The installations will be officially unveiled at each of the sites in early June. See the Gothenburg Green World programme for more information on dates and times.

All the artists take their inspiration from nature, and in some cases use nature as a co-creator. It is amazing to see what nature can inspire! A dark 30-metre-long swirl of joined timber, a complete cathedral built from twigs on nature’s scale in the middle of the forest, a circle of ferns that rises out of the ground, willow nests that you can climb into … almost all the materials are taken from nature, including tree trunks, branches, rocks and leaves.

The idea is to attract a wider new audience – not just garden enthusiasts and the converted – and to build a bridge between the natural and more cultivated areas of the parks. As Anders Stålhand, head gardener at the botanical garden, says:

“By using wood in unusual ways, these objects evoke questions, as all good art does. They spark discussions about wood – one of the forms that plants take. And that’s what we want to do; to spark discussion and emotional connections with plants.”

Korean, British and Dutch influences in the Botanical Garden

In the Pinetum, the conifer collection at Gothenburg Botanical Garden, Jaehyo Lee from Korea will create an installation assembled from pieces of chestnut wood, polished and shaped into a round, warm circular shape – almost three metres high. The polished surface contrasts with the coarse intersections of knots and bark.

Jaehyo Lee

The installation is made up of hundreds of parts and is assembled in Korea, then shipped to Gothenburg Botanical Garden. Lee is known for his refined geometric shapes, which are powerful in their simplicity and convey a strong sense of contemporary art. He joins natural materials and then sculpts and polishes them into elegant objects. Lee was born in 1965 and has held many individual exhibitions in Korea, Japan, the UK and USA. For the last five years he has used stainless steel nails to assemble his works.

In the Rock Garden at the Botanical Garden, another Arte Sella artist, Stuart Ian Frost from the UK, decorates an old dead oak by polishing the surface and burning in patterns – a little like the Aboriginal dot paintings of native Australians. The oak is already dead and can be left in place as long as it poses no danger. Thanks to Frost it will take on a new life in front of visitors’ eyes in early summer.

Stuart Ian Frost

Frost is an artist who has created Land Art in many different parts of the world, always using natural materials from the site. In the Black Forest, in Germany, he used spruce bark; in Finland, ice; in Peru, papyrus and pelican feathers; in Denmark, willow; and so on. He often transforms these materials into something quite different, something aesthetic – like the oak in Gothenburg Botanical Garden. He stretches our conceptions of what a tree is, and tries to make us look at it in new ways. Frost has made many diverse installations: organic shapes, burned patterns, wicker cages, nests and cocoons, and cut-grass designs. He creates Land Art on site and exhibits objects at galleries and museums. He was born in 1960 and now lives in Norway, where among other things he has created works in giant hogweed.

Another Arte Sella installation will be on show in Gothenburg Botanical Garden, by the Mirror Pond near the entrance. “Origin of Species” is the work of Will Beckers, a Dutch artist who now lives in Belgium. His installation is made from hinged trunks of elm and is almost insect-like in appearance. Because it is placed right at the water’s edge it appears to hover, and Beckers plays with the idea: What would trees have looked like if evolution had taken another path in the development of species? Perhaps they would have been mobile?

Will Beckers

Beckers has been nicknamed the “The willow man” for his nest-like willow sculptures, which he both exhibited and lived in during an international open-air exhibition in the Netherlands in 2012. He originally began sculpting in clay and bronze, but is now a confirmed Land Art artist. His speciality is site-specific natural installations, often created interactively in public places.

The willowman – World Expo Floriade, NL

High and low at Gunnebo House and Gardens

Another work by Will Beckers will be exhibited in parallel at Gunnebo House and Gardens. This is a 15-metre-long nest made from wands of hazel, elder or willow that he will build on Flora’s hill (Floras kulle) next to the house. It is entitled “For nature everything is a memory” and its diameter ranges from 0.5 to 1.5 metres. Its construction is reminiscent of the cocoon-like structures he created with the help of children at the Floriade exhibition in the Netherlands in 2012. One of the children’s contributions was to write down their dreams on notes. The level of interaction with the new installation at Gunnebo has not yet been decided.

Another Arte Sella veteran, Rainer Gross, will be exhibiting in a different part of Gunnebo Garden. Alongside one of paths leading to Teaterplatsen a snake-like creation rears up into the trees. Gross is known for his installations created by joining hundreds or even thousands of long, thin slats together using screws. His shapes are sinuous and organic. At Gunnebo, three separate waves made from blackened slats intertwine with each other. They measure 15, 18 and 30 metres long. The installation, called “Flow”, will rise up from the ground, arch across the path and climb to a height of 10 metres through the adjacent trees.

Rainer Gross

Gross was born in Berlin, but now lives in Belgium. He was originally a technical journalist, but switched career to become an artist around 10 years ago. His work brings a new perspective to each site and he has created installations in a wide range of locations, from derelict buildings and impressive castles to stately gardens, virgin forest and open landscapes.

Green Land Art trail in Mölndal

Two further Land Art installations link Gothenburg Botanical Garden to Gunnebo House and Gardens. The first is by Stuart Ian Frost in Mölndal city hall park (Stadshuspark), a work comprising large round logs in which he drills patterns. The second is by Roberto Conte from Italy, whose “Janus” installation is a three-metre-high wave of birch that is cleft in two, so that you can walk through it. This work is at the start of a trail through the park, behind the former Papyrus paper mill in Mölndal, that links Gothenburg Botanical Garden to Gunnebo House and Gardens.