State and Nature – Preludes in public space

30.03. – 31.10.2021

The Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden is pleased to announce four new artistic works by Yael Bartana, Jan St. Werner, DAF (Dynamic Acoustic Research), and Sunette L. Viljoen and Egemen Demirci for public urban spaces as part of State and Nature.

Based on the parkland surrounding the institution, the yearlong program explores the mutable relationship between state and nature. Interpreting institutional identity as “state” and nature as a resource plays a crucial role in re-evaluating politics of representation, attributions of self and other, and social and economic infrastructures.

Before the eponymous major exhibition opens on July 16th 2021, the program will start in Spring with four works installed in public spaces, the so-called Preludes, playfully setting subversive accents and contrasts in the surroundings of the Kunsthalle. The artistic works refer to different sensual and medial processes such as photography, sculpture, and sound installation. They establish a multi-layered and nuanced connection to their immediate environment and, in the current pandemic situation, can be experienced by the audience open-air.