Reflections on the sensitive and multifaceted interaction between humans and nature have existed since prehistory in the form of art and everyday as well as ritual actions. Today, this theme shapes discourses in the natural sciences and the humanities, especially since we are increasingly reaching the edge of our planet's capacities through the exploitation of natural resources with the help of turbo-capitalist economic growth. The unrestrained acceleration of industry and economy since the industrial revolution — higher, further, faster — ignores the complex relationship between nature and humans, and our dependence on a limited habitat. Only the global catastrophe of climate change makes the vulnerability of taking and giving evident and raises the question of the necessities for our existence.
Agriculture, which has fulfilled and regulated our basic needs since the Neolithic era, and art, which reflects society and confronts it with new possibilities, become tense fields of reference in these reflections. The project OPEN FIELDS – Art and Agriculture focuses on these basic human needs for physical and spiritual nourishment. At the same time, it deals with historical, political and social contexts, new impulses and current approaches. Through the meeting of two apparent opposites, space is given to create something new.
Farmers who are interested in contemporary art were invited to open their farms to international artists from various disciplines such as music, literature, performance, film, digital media, visual arts, etc. These artists spent up to one month on selected farms to develop temporary artworks. This was intended to give space and time for a serious and critical examination of the topics of art and agriculture in mutual respect. The farmers were carefully selected together with the scientific advisor Klaus Schrefler, the artists by an international jury consisting of: Ramesch Daha, Robert Höldrich, Katrina Petter, Andreas Unterweger, and Elisabeth Fiedler as chairwoman.
Participating artists and artist collectives: Astarti Athanasiadou & Stéphane Verlet Bottéro, Samuel Collins & Shō Alexander Murayama, Markus Hiesleitner, Katharina Klement, Sujit Mallik, Benjamin Reynolds, Jonathan Omer Mizrahi , Rainer Nöbauer-Kammerer, Georg Nussbaumer, Gina van der Ploeg, Eva Seiler, and Paul Wiersbinski.
