Profile and exhibitions
Skovhuset Art & Nature is an independent art space and centre for cultural activities. Skovhuset (the Forest House) is located in a forest by Søndersø Lake in Værløse, not far from Copenhagen. Skovhuset has been an art space since 1977, when a group of local art enthusiasts supported by the local council took over a large, empty family summer house from 1923 and the forest surrounding it. The house and forest have been dedicated to indoor and outdoor exhibitions and events ever since.
In 2021 Skovhuset launched its new profile. Through a series of world-class exhibitions and a programme of tailored activities and events we aim to put Skovhuset on the map as a creative hub specialising in and nurturing interaction between art and nature in order to increase awareness of the current state of the environment on which our lives depend. Skovhuset’s goal is to become a powerful, art-based voice in contemporary debates on nature, the environment, and climate change.
Our work is based on the view that nature, art, culture and human life are inextricably linked. Nature and culture are not diametrical opposites, but part of the same ecosystem. Art often shares this holistic thinking, focusing in different ways on the permeable boundaries between the aesthetic, organic and ecological, as well as between politics, economics and ethics. Climate changes and the far-reaching global consequences of the transfer of viruses from animals to humans has served to confirm the extent to which nature and culture are interconnected and interdependent, acceptance of which is key to re-establishing balance and finding solutions to the challenges we all face.
NU FALMER SKOVEN
The Dark, Dangerous Depths of Nature
1. Octobre 2022 - 22. January 2023
Skovhuset Kunst & Natur's autumn exhibition Nu Falmer Skoven focuses on nature as a place that can be fascinating but at the same time also scary and frightening. In the exhibition, seven artists with an international range show different perspectives on the darker sides of nature.
Nature is often associated with the idea of something beautiful, meditative and life-affirming, but it can also be associated with something dark and terrifying. The perception of nature as threatening is highly topical with the uncertainty and anxiety brought about by actual climate change and the spread of the corona virus around the world. But fear can also be conditioned by an inner anxiety and insecurity, by mental states that we transfer to nature and to the notion of nature as something sinister.
Nu Falmer Skoven features artists that thoughtfully engage with our fear of the vagaries and uncertainties of nature through photographs, video works, sculptures and installations. The connection between our inner, psychological landscapes and outer, physical conditions and ecosystems are topics Jakob Kudsk Steensen and Joachim Koester address. In each their way, they link the unconscious layers of the human being with, for example, the phobia of water or with bodily primordial movements in harmony with nature. Astrid Kruse Jensen revolves around the vulnerability associated with the fear of the ephemeral, while Daniel Gustav Kramer explores the almost mythical depths of nature and our complex sense of attraction and unease. The linking of our hidden and unconscious impulses with nature is echoed in the works of Maiken Bent and Astrid Svangren, who depict the psychological spaces that emerge in nature with a powerful gesture and a more subtle world of recollection respectively. In Jennifer Steinkamp’s work, by contrast, nature has escaped in its own powerful cycle of changing seasons, with branches like slightly threatening tentacles reaching out towards us.
The title of the exhibition is taken from the important Danish priest and author N.F.S Grundtvig's famous hymn "Nu falmer skoven trindt om land" from 1844, which describes autumn and how nature loses its power here to return again in spring. In the exhibition, the title is used as a reference to decay, darkness and fear in particular, but also to the complex feelings of anxiety and hope, fear and responsibility that many people experience today.
Skovhuset is supported by Furesø Kommune, Beckett-Fonden, 15. Juni Fonden, Knud Højgaards Fond, Lemvigh-Müller Fonden, Ny Carlsberg Fondet, Det Obelske Familiefond og Statens Kunstfond.