Yes Naturally: How art saves the world
16 March–16 August 2013
GEM/Fotomuseum/Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
Stadhouderslaan 43 2517 HV Den Haag
Hours: Tuesday–Sunday 12–18h
T 31 (0)70 33 811 33
www.ja-natuurlijk.com
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In Yes Naturally, humans are no longer the centre of the world. The international art eventYes Naturally will open on 15 March around the Gemeentemuseum Den Hague. More than 80 artists will use this grand-scale exhibition to present surprising partnerships between humans, nature and technology. The results are both liberating and hilarious: you can design your own pet, fungi turn out to be our best friends, you can harvest the city and seagulls are quite tasty on the barbeque. But also, your smartphone is your memory, Facebook is your habitat, internet the new biotope and nanoparticles have become an integral part of our existence.
Sculptures, films, installations, performances and bioart from Francis Alÿs, Jimmie Durham, Olafur Eliasson, Peter Fend, Fischli & Weiss, Natalie Jeremijenko, Marjetica Potrc, Zeger Reyers, Tinkebell, SUPERFLEX and Ai Weiwei, among others, will be on display until the end of August 2013 in the GEM/Gemeentemuseum, in the museum gardens, the duneforest and even further afield.
How art saves the world
We cannot afford to go on misusing and mistreating our planet. We’re not going to save the world by ‘being green’ every now and then. In order to make a real difference we must fundamentally transform our perspective on our coexistence with the non-human inhabitants of our planet. And artists can help. They challenge our ingrained habits. Yes Naturally makes no distinction between nature and culture, subject and object, man and technology.
Wolves, lilies and talismans
One of the highlights of Yes Naturally can be found in the entrance to the GEM: the Victoria Regia by Keith Edmier. An enormous water lily in which nature and technology are combined: the lily is made from high quality plastics (polyester resin, silicon rubber), but the flowers contain real pollen. It embodies the high-tech wonders and true beauty of nature.
Mark Dion’s artwork Mobile Wilderness is a delicate representation of how we humans create an image of nature and try to manipulate it. The wolf is taken out of its natural habitat, put onto a trolley and can then be moved around at will. Mobile Wilderness confronts us with our urge to manipulate and control nature.
A large, floating artwork by the Filipino artist duo Alfredo and Isabel Aquilizan will be placed in the pond of the Gemeentemuseum. The piece consists of thousands of fetishes, objects made to protect species and places in nature—animals, trees, rivers. Hundreds of volunteers will make the amulets from waste materials. The first creative workshops to make these Artefacts of Faith have already started.
Outside the museum walls
This expanded art exhibition is not limited to the museum walls. On the contrary, Yes Naturally offers a varied programme throughout the city, including urban wildlife safaris, performances, workshops, lectures and debates in art institutes and film houses. It goes without saying that Yes Naturally is firmly nestled in all kinds of social media and online forums.
Yes Naturally is the sequel to the art event Niet Normaal that took place in 2009/2010 in Amsterdam and will be organised in collaboration with the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag.
For more information and images, please contact Martine Willekens via
pr [at] ja-natuurlijk.com / m.willekens [at] ja-natuurlijk.com / T 06 53600431.
