The Winter Office “Re-wildering holographic weeds, No. 2”, 2020.
Press Release, November 2020
Nature as Infrastructure
A Proposition by THE WINTER OFFICE
A Virtual Programme for Adélaïde and Atlantis, launching via the new online magazine, Bruise. Organised within the frame of Manifesta 13 Les Parallèles du Sud, Marseille.
THE WINTER OFFICE welcomes you to enjoy our month-long programme of talks, films, artworks and projects from our group and invited artists, which we have organised as part of an invitation by Adélaïde and Atlantis, in the frame of Manifesta 13 Les Parallèles du Sud, that can be accessed online by the 14th of November via: thewinteroffice.net and through Bruise, which is a new online magazine of art and artistic ideas produced in partnership with Triangle - Astérides.
This virtual initiative is the last and closing contribution to the Les Parallèles du Sud platform of exhibitions of Manifesta 13. Since the nationwide lockdowns in France, rising out of Covid-19 infections and as demanded by the French Government, we had to make changes to the format of THE WINTER OFFICE’s contribution to Manifesta 13. Originally, we were scheduled to produce an exhibition in Adélaïde’s space, but the physical exhibition has now been cancelled and will instead take place online.
With that said, we are very pleased to be able to invite you to immerse yourself in our new virtual program, Nature as Infrastructure, available from the 14th of November. The program encapsulates the research interests and theoretical underpinnings of THE WINTER OFFICE, focusing primarily on the relationship between nature, humans and the urban environment. These are at the same time informed by the diverse creative contexts surrounding the initiatives and projects led by the group’s collaboration with SixtyEight Art Institute and Really Simple Syndication Press, both based in Copenhagen.
More specifically, through new artistic connections and contexts, the programme examines how we can re-establish a new connection to nature, rethink a renewal of society, and inspire the design of future public spaces by asking how to reintroduce nature into cities. The initiative presents films, ideas, and conversations from a number of artists and thinkers engaging with the various preoccupations of the group, and examines how the concept of 'Nature as infrastructure' is treated through artistic strategies. The program concludes with the release of a new publication. The text introduces a discussion about the importance of generating higher standards of spatial justice through the design of urban forests and at the same time claiming new roles for citizen participation. This includes ideas for how to create social spaces through forest design which can lead to new engagement with nature and urban space.
All these facets considered, the Nature as Infrastructure: A Proposition by The Winter Office programme aims to imagine a new role for Nature, not only as infrastructure, but also as a catalyst to a discussion on the power of creativity to act as a disaster mitigator. Arguing instead for the distributive potential of an emerging consultant framework led by artists, and that any regeneration project demands new ways of imagining architecture, landscape design, art, and ‘communities of practice’ forming around solutions.
Participating Artists / Architects / Curators: Raul Baltazar, Filip Vest, Madeleine Andersson, Ingrid Book & Carina Hedén, Anja Franke, Oscar Salguero, Gitte Juul, Lise Grüner Bertelsen, Aurélia Defrance, Wilfrid Almendra, Hugo Hopping, Frans Jacobi and Gitte Sætre, Anja Franke, Elzélina Van Melle, The Living Unliving Surveillance Poet, Jeanne Betak, David Lau, Jeffrey C. Stewart, and THE WINTER OFFICE. In addition to other guest artists, architects, and social scientists.
Books reviews and discussions: No Safe Space by Peter Brandt, Cerro Point Blanco by Lehman Brothers, Nature as Infrastructure by The Winter Office published by Really Simple Syndication Press.
Organized and Curated by: Hugo Hopping in close collaboration with Lise Grüner Bertelsen, Camilo Montoya, and Johanna Ferrer Guldager of THE WINTER OFFICE; and through the generous support of Wilfrid Almendra and Aurélia Defrance for Adélaïde and Bruise Magazine; and through an extended collaboration with Christopher Sand-Iversen and Katie Mcdougall of SixtyEight Art Institute; and Céline Kopp of Triangle France - Astérides.
Supported by Région sud Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, Atlantis Lumière, Triangle France - Astérides, SixtyEight Art Institute, and The Danish Arts Foundation.
About The Winter Office: THE WINTER OFFICE is an artistic work group consisting of artists, curators, architects, designers and social scientists founded in 2010 by the American artist Hugo Hopping and the Danish architect/urban planner Johanna Ferrer Guldager. THE WINTER OFFICE is involved with various initiatives that express themselves both in art and architecture; and in favor of new uses for social/urban planning and design. To this end, the group seeks challenges in the production of final objects, constructions, research and exhibitions to introduce non-ideal values of spatial justice to raise the quality of the built environment. The group is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
About Adélaïde: Adélaïde is an aunt. She barters everyday. Adélaïde is a space of exchange and experimentation. It is a space where tools and ideas are being shared. It is a space where conversations happen. It is a space of activity, labor, traffic, and generosity. Adélaïde is an artist’s run space founded by Wilfrid Almendra in Marseille, France.
About Bruise: Bruise is an online magazine seeking to question currents detailed in contemporary art writing or criticism from an artist-driven perspective. Through the commission and the diffusion of art writing, artworks, visual-textual productions and conversations with artists and theorists, we aim to create an editorial gateway to support intellectual, experimental, and off-center positions which shape the projects, the ideas and the research of art and culture today. Bruise is an initiative of Triangle France - Astérides – an over 25 year-old contemporary art centre founded by international artists in Marseille.