Agnes Denes Exercises in Eco-Logic
Åsa Sonjasdotter Cultivating Abundance
1 June – 25 August 2024
Lunds konsthall presents two parallel solo exhibitions, one by Agnes Denes (b. 1931) and one by Åsa Sonjasdotter (b. 1966). In their works, both artists speak of the importance to act in the face of climate change and other destructive processes affecting the surroundings and the future.
Agnes Denes is a pioneer within the artistic genre of Land Art and the ecological debate. Since the 1960s she has used artistic as well as scientific, mathematical and philosophical methods to investigate and influence humankind’s impact on the environment.
Åsa Sonjasdotter combines the cultivation of plants with archival research to investigate social and ecological relations and contexts. Her works reactivate overlooked knowledge about cultivation and insists that the genetical information coded into common crops is a memory bank for both humans and plants.
Both exhibitions involve new productions with site-specific dimensions. Denes’s Time Capsule consists of a capsule filled with collected answers from Lund’s students to the artist’s questions about the future. Denes has also realised the film Bird Migration based on a concept she formulated already when she lived in Sweden as a teenager.
Sonjasdotter has produced new artworks dealing with the cultivation of grain, potatoes and kale. The atrium at Lunds konsthall has been converted into a cultivation space showcasing new thinking about how we may relate to what nature offers and what humanity needs.