As part of the Klima Biennale Wien, Kunst Haus Wien presents Into the Woods: Perspectives on Forest Ecosystems extensive group exhibition on one of the most important ecosystems in the world - the forest. The Klima Biennale Wien will open on April 5, kicking off with the exhibition opening at 19:00 in Vienna, Austria, gathering 16 contemporary artistic positions that are dedicated to the forest habitat, its ecological processes, and threats.

Logging and the profit-oriented exploitation of woodlands are accelerating the ecological crisis while climate change fuels deforestation. The group exhibition Into the Woods reflects on the forest as a habitat, its ecological processes, as well as the threats it faces. Sixteen contemporary perspectives engage with the human impact on the condition and destruction of forests, as well as with the collective and symbiotic nature of the forest ecosystem.

The artists in the exhibition illuminate the central role of our planet's forests in ecological change. The research-based, inspiring and poetic works – often created in collaboration with scientists – make the complex topic tangible and allow new perspectives on an ecosystem that is supposedly so familiar to us.

For example, habitual scent of the pine tree forest is visualized by artists Rasa Smite and Raitis Smits, who in their VR artwork Atmospheric Forest (2020) explore the relationship between forest ecosystems and the atmosphere using the scientific data from the Pfynwald, an ancient Swiss Alpine conifer forest suffering from drought due to climate change.
Atmospheric Forest is a result of the SNSF-funded research project "Ecodata-Ecomedia-Ecoaesthetics" (2017-2020) at the HGK FHNW and a collaboration with Swiss scientists from the WSL Institute.

Curator: Sophie Haslinger / Artists: Rodrigo Arteaga (CL), Anca Benera & Arnold Estefán (RO), Eline Benjaminsen (NO), Alma Heikkilä (FI), Monica Ursina Jäger (CH), Markus Jeschaunig (AT), Isa Klee (AT), Susanne Kriemann (DE), Jeewi Lee (KR), Antje Majewski (DE), Richard Mosse (IE), Katie Paterson (UK), Oliver Ressler (AT), Abel Rodríguez (CO), Diana Scherer (DE), Rasa Šmite & Raitis Šmits (LV).

The first Klima Biennale Wien, presenting itself as "interdisciplinary, low-threshold and interactive", is a collaboration of more than 60 partner institutions in Vienna and the surrounding area with the main festival area in Nordwestbahnhof site, and Biennale headquarters in Kunst Haus Wien.

The Klima Biennale Wien: April 5-July 14, 2024, Kunst Haus Wien
Into the Woods: Perspectives on Forest Ecosystems exhibition: April 6-August 11, 2024, opening: April 5, 19:00, Kunst Haus Wien

More info:
https://biennale.wien/
https://www.kunsthauswien.com/de/ausstellungen/into-the-woods/

Credits:
https://www.fhnw.ch/de/forschung-und-dienstleistungen/gestaltung-kunst/forschung/forschungsprojekte-iagn/ecodata-ecomedia-ecoaesthetics