The exhibition Nature Feeling Form at Castel Belasi ART ECO thought

       contemporary art center for eco thought in a medieval castle in the Alps
       ITA | ENG

Cut and Scrape (George Rei) (AT), Gaia Di Bello (CH), Karin Ferrari (IT/AT), Byron Gago (CH), Hanakam & Schuller (AT), Nanna Kaiser (AT),

Sandro Pianetti (CH), Sarah Rechberger (AT), Corinne L. Rusch (CH/AT), Gloria Tomasini (CH), Cassidy Toner e Paulo Wirz (CH).

Castel Belasi – Center for Contemporary Art for Eco Thought is pleased to announce the opening of a new exhibition inspired by the European politician Alexander Langer, a reflection on environmental issues through the sensibilities of artists from the Alpine nations of Austria and Switzerland. The exhibition features eighteen artists with over twenty works, primarily sculptures and installations, but also video and two-dimensional works, photographs, paintings, and textiles.

The exhibition's creator, Riccardo Lisi, who co-curates it with Lukas Willmann, Austrian, asks, «How is nature perceived by artists today? The impression is that almost no one has direct, primordial experience of it, as was the case for generations even recently—with an education developed through connections with the countryside, far more useful than many discourses. Nature is stretched between utilitarian reasoning and its opposite, that is, a perception in almost decorative terms, both partial and harmful positions, always anthropocentric.»

Each artist exhibited expresses their own vision of nature. Project creator Riccardo Lisi values the diversity of creative approaches, and among them he places particular importance on a certain understatement, an irony that transcends the ascriptive and moralizing nature of many ecological discourses.

The subtitle then leverages a similar surname: that of the American philosopher and aesthetics expert Susanne Langer. Lisi explains, «She noted the relevance of a principle of invisibility in contemporary art—I would even say a certain vagueness. If you think about it, nature also appears invisible, in fact little known, scarcely present in today's art—in some ways exploited. Its presence in the works is usually metaphorized, symbolic, very partial, and absolutely sterilized: a nature that neither stinks nor makes a mess.»

Starting December 4th, the exhibition project also includes a second show in Vienna at Kunstraum am Schauplatz, featuring a new selection of works and artists, designed to extend and deepen the reflections initiated at Castel Belasi.

The exhibition at Castel Belasi is made possible thanks to the support of the Austrian Cultural Forum – Milan, Kunstraum am Schauplatz – Vienna, Fogarassy Stiftung. Wine sponsor Weingut Payr is also included.

Markus Hanakam & Roswitha Schuller
PAN AU
2023
photography,
motion tracking software,
acrylic medium on Ilford paper
Unique piece
145 x 145 cm
Courtesy Galerie Krinzinger, Wien

Sarah Rechberger
A-Symbiose
2013/ 2022
Borosilicate glass, nutrient medium, orchids,
paraffin, color orange
Dimensions: ø 28 cm
Pedestal, 2022, steel, 30 x 30 x 95 cm