Windflower, Perceptions of Nature
9 October 2011–15 January 2012
Kröller-Müller Museum
Houtkampweg 6
6731 AW Otterlo
The Netherlands
Windflower, Perceptions of Nature is an exhibition in which the Kröller-Müller Museum focuses on a specific aspect of nature: nature as a vulnerable factor in the worldwide pursuit of progress. The museum examines the subject from a broad perspective and from a wealth of various cultural backgrounds. The exhibition runs from 9 October 2011 until 15 January 2012.
The exhibition brings together a carefully selected group of artists from different continents and cultures—Western and non-Western—whose work expresses an outspoken relationship to nature. These are artists with a critical view of the world, who are aware of the increasing global concern for nature’s future and the earth’s sustainability. They connect these contemporary issues to traditions and ways of thinking that derive from various cultures in order to create a new vision of the future.
The result is an exhibition with twelve very different visions of nature/culture in the form of sculptures, installations, videos, drawings, paintings or combinations of these media.
The works are spread throughout the galleries and corridors, starting with a majestic bouquet of flowers by the Dutch artist Willem de Rooij in the first gallery. Text sculptures by Yoko Ono, entitled Pieces, run like a poetic thread through the exhibition. Placed on the museum’s large windows, they connect the interior and the landscape.
The exhibition contains work by the following artists: Lothar Baumgarten (Rheinsberg, Germany, 1944), Cai Guo-Qiang (Quanzhou City, China, 1957), Mark Dion (New Bedford, MA, USA, 1961), Peter Doig (Edinburgh, Scotland, 1959), Mario García Torres (Monclova, Mexico, 1975), Kimsooja (Taegu, Korea, 1957), Tetsumi Kudo (Osaka, Japan, 1935 –Tokyo, Japan, 1990), Charly Nijensohn (Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1966), Yoko Ono (Tokyo, Japan, 1933), Marco Pando Quevedo (Lima, Peru, 1973), Willem de Rooij (Beverwijk, The Netherlands, 1969), Liang Shaoji (Shanghai, China, 1945).
The exhibition is accompanied by an English-language publication entitled Windflower, Perceptions of Nature, ISBN 978-90-5662-836-9. The exhibition and the publication have been made possible in part with the support of SNS REAAL Fund and the Mondriaan Foundation. Information about NAi Publishers: www.naipublishers.nl.
