SculptureMotion

Artists: Carolina Falkholt, William Forsythe, Henrik Plenge Jakobsen, Sonia Khurana, Éva Mag, Mammalian Diving Reflex

Movement is the theme as SculptureMotion opens on May 7 and the exhibitions at Wanås celebrate 30 years. SculptureMotion brings together works that examine sculpture and movement and sculpture that invites action both swift and still. Six Swedish, Nordic, and international artists—one of which is an artists collective—participate in the exhibition that also includes moving image and performance. The artists begin with movement—adding, being, reproducing movement, the memory of movement, and emphasizing the dual meaning of the word “movement”: active physical movement, but also movement as mobilization. The exhibition program includes a Walk & Talk with William Forsythe, a performance weekend with Mammalian Diving Reflex, and choreographer Maria Hassabi’s outdoor performance Staged.

Movement stands in contrast to what sculpture is commonly associated with—the permanent or static. One artist who challenged that idea was Alexander Calder, who already in 1931 with his mobiles let objects leave the podium and move freely in the air before us. One of the world’s foremost choreographers William Forsythe’s oeuvre is the starting point for the exhibition SculptureMotion. While Calder spoke of Objet ballet, Forsythe talks about choreographic objects, something he has worked with for 20 years.

The artworks encompass slow-motion as well as action; when one artist asks us to lie down, another urges us—Stand up! In thematizing movement, one reference is Movement in Art [Rörelse i konsten] at Moderna Museet, Stockholm, in 1961 in collaboration with Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, with artists such as Alexander Calder and Jean Tinguely. Now it is time to investigate how artists approach motion today, beyond the mobile and the machine.

William Forsythe is a pioneering choreographer, but this exhibition emphasizes his choreographic objects. At Wanås, he fills a room in the Art Gallery, sets nature in motion, and creates a new artwork—his first for a sculpture park. With Underall (2017) Forsythe has chosen to work with an abandoned house and let a gentle movement be the focus. He incorporates motion into an existing building, throws us off balance. As with many of his objects, we gain the experience of ourselves by being aware of movement, and by ourselves being set in motion.

In the Art Gallery, Éva Mag has worked with clay, textiles, and metal in sculptures that form a potential obstacle course, built from memories of motions and thoughts about physical and mental strength. In an adjacent space, Sonia Khurana’s works include a video, instructions, and an performance, all of which are based on the prostrate body, that make the seemingly passive act of lying down active.

On a lawn in the sculpture park, Henrik Plenge Jacobsen turns grazing sheep into art that literally walks around. Outside the boundaries of the park, Carolina Falkholt depicts travel and motion with her large-scale artwork Train of Thoughts, an actual graffitied train car. Mammalian Diving Reflex leaves the site entirely. In These are the People in Your Neighborhood children conduct tours in the nearby community of Knislinge. Their participation emphasizes the dual meaning of “movement”: a physical term and a collective action to impact social conditions.

Wanås Konst – Center for Art & Learning, presents and communicates contemporary art that challenges and redefines society. Wanås Konst produces site-specific international art and learning in the landscape around Wanås. Wanås is located in southern Sweden, 1.5 hours from Malmö/Copenhagen. The permanent collection in the sculpture park hosts over 70 works – by artists such as Nathalie Djurberg & Hans Berg, Ann Hamilton, Jenny Holzer, Maya Lin, Yoko Ono, Srinivasa Prasad and Robert Wilson. Wanås Konst is run by the Wanås Foundation. Marika Wachtmeister initiated the exhibitions in 1987. Since 2011, the Foundation has been co-directed by Elisabeth Millqvist and Mattias Givell. Wanås is part of European Land + Art Network (ELAN) and a Long Run Destination.

Related events

Walk & talk with William Forsythe
June 4, 2–4pm
in the sculpture park at Wanås

Sonia Khurana performance
May 17 

Mammalian Diving Reflex—Performance weekend
June 17–18
These are the People in Your Neighbourhood. 
Knislinge 

Maria Hassabi, Staged
August 19–20
Outdoor performance at Wanås with Hassabi and Hristoula Harakas, Oisin Monaghan and Jessie Gold
 

Press contact: Sofia Bertilsson, press@wanaskonst.se / T +46 733 866820