Kunstnatur | Naturkunst
Natur in der Kunst nach dem Ende der Natur
[Art Nature | Natural Art. Nature in art after the end of nature]

With contributions by Hartmut Böhme, Linn Burchert, Herbert Kopp-Oberstebrink, Ingeborg Reichle, Gunnar Schmidt, Kirsten Claudia Voigt, Judith Elisabeth Weiss

Is it possible that the current boom in “natural” products and journeys into “untouched nature,” “nature experiences” on high ropes courses across the forest, and the trend of a “neo-nature” that promises a “new lust for nature consumption” is not an expression of a newly awakened love of nature, but instead indicates a loss? It seems that the less there is of nature, the more the longing for nature intensifies. Today’s reflections on nature usually focus on its manipulation and destruction: from the extinction of species to climate change, the ever-shrinking rainforest, and the sea, which will harbor more swimming plastic than fish in the near future. Scientists call this the Anthropocene, the “age of man”, which is characterized by extreme human interferences with our planet’s ecosystems. Present theoretical discourses also recognize a crisis of nature by denouncing current concepts of nature and culture and instead offering alternative concepts of “nature.”

In the face of this often-diagnosed end of nature, its attraction in art seems almost paradoxical. Here, nature reveals itself to be resistant and resilient, inexhaustible and changeable. It offers motifs and ideas and continuously provides art with a large reservoir of content and material. The spectrum of contemporary artistic appropriations of nature ranges from styles reminiscent of fine painting and natural history collections of the early modern period to applications of latest technologies in synthetic biology.

The volume opens up the field of tension between artificial nature and natural art and continues the various editions of KUNSTFORUM International on the subject (volumes 48, 93, 145, 146, 174, 175). Has nature actually become a relic? Is contemporary art the residue of a nature 2.0? What is the relationship between the Anthropocene paradigm and the aesthetic position of a natural nature? Ingeborg Reichle presents artistic positions that take up position on the effects of synthetic biology and the mechanization of living things. Hartmut Böhme’s contribution focuses on the artistic confrontation with habitats of the extreme—the Arctic and the desert. Judith Elisabeth Weiss deals with the topicality of the garden as a metaphor and artistic sphere of activity. The monographs by Gunnar Schmidt, Kirsten Claudia Voigt, Linn Burchert, Herbert Kopp-Oberstebrink, and the guest editor make it clear that, in light of the theoretical efforts to adopt the concept of nature, art goes its own ways. Nature may be artificial, natural, or in the process of disappearing—it reveals itself, above all, as a matter of aesthetic judgment. In this sense, returning to nature implies an art that amalgamates natural with artistic beauty (Mariko Mori). With nature as a material, one may create works capable of transcending nature (Christiane Löhr), just as the polarity of the artificial and the natural is being abolished (Steiner & Lenzlinger), everything can be nature after nature (Krištof Kintera), or nature only proves itself to be a fragment of our knowledge (Ilkka Halso). The conversations with the Art Laboratory Berlin, Brandon Ballengée, and Detlef Orlopp revolve in the broadest sense around figurations of disappearance and the positioning of art in this context. It is and remains undeniable that nature (once more) creates itself in art.