What is humanity's biggest challenge today? What will define our entire basis of life far into the future? One of the most important answers is the way we choose to live so that the earth, our habitat, can also survive. That realization is the starting point for this summer exhibitions at Agder Art Center and Kunstpunkt Lista. We will turn the gaze inwards, towards ourselves, on how we think about, feel and feel ourselves, as living beings who live among other living beings. We wish for the artworks to help us remember this basic condition; that we are connected, not only with other people, but with all living things. There is a great power and potential in art, because it can make present that which is difficult to grasp. It can make us notice who we are on a planet that is interconnected, and that can not survive if just a small part of it dies. "Habitat" will try to create a breeding ground for greater openness and sensitivity towards non-human nature, so that we (re)discover the connection with our habitat and the perception of ourselves as nature.
The exhibition "Habitat" challenges 14 artists to give their interpretation of how we can continue our existence by becoming more aware of our surroundings - of all visible and invisible organisms that surround us. We divide the exhibitions into 3 areas; Agder Kunstsenter, Kristiansand town and Kunstpunkt Lista, located in the nature park Lista in Farsund, all locations in the South of Norway. We wish for the collaboration between artists from Denmark, Greenland and Norway in this exhibition to be a way to show different takes on sustainability across contemporary art in the Nordic region and to exchange know-how on this field; both with regard to sustainability in thematics, discourse, materials and practice.
In the project at Lista nature park, we will challenge the artists to create art in relation to the nature on-site, but we will not let art take over the place. With "Habitat", we will rather let the artists investigate how their work can make a positive contribution to the ecosystems and species that already have their home here. We want to challenge how art can be more than an object for human contemplation and entertainment. Can we contribute to new relationships to the other species, plants and various landscapes that already exist on Lista through art projects that enter into dialogue with the place on the place's own terms? In this process, both curator and artists will depend on dialogue with the various disciplines established on Lista in biology, geography and ornithology, but also the farmers, who have nature as their work and livelihood, and the tourists on whom Lista also depends. Our wish and goal is that the project will not only focus on Lista's landscape and nature, but also contribute to the protection of this and its natural habitat for many species.
We challenge all the artists on the 3 different sites to reflect on the materials they work with and to have the goal that the work process is sustainable throughout. The artists must be able to show that they have worked with environmentally friendly materials in the process of creating the artworks.
