Agnes Denes revives Wheatfield at Art Basel 2024
Agnes Denes, a conceptual artist and eco-activist born in Budapest in 1931, has recreated her iconic land art installation, Wheatfield – A Confrontation, at Messeplatz for Art Basel 2024. The new work, titled Honoring Wheatfield – A Confrontation, showcases wheat cultivated on 1,000 square meters using Euro-pallets. Samuel Leuenberger is the curator for this project, and the wheat will be harvested in a public event on August 18, 2024, from 2 to 4 PM. The original installation, which debuted in Lower Manhattan in 1982, utilized 200 truckloads of soil to produce over 450 kilos of grain. Denes, now 93, remarked, "First you have to try to communicate with the future, then predict it." The harvested wheat will be milled and shared with local bakeries and food shelters.
Key facts
- Agnes Denes recreated Wheatfield – A Confrontation at Messeplatz in Basel for Art Basel 2024.
- The installation is titled Honoring Wheatfield – A Confrontation.
- The wheat was planted on 1,000 square meters using Euro-pallets, inspired by vertical farming.
- The original Wheatfield was created in 1982 on a landfill in Lower Manhattan.
- The 1982 harvest yielded over 450 kilos of grain on land valued at $4.5 billion.
- Previous iterations include Dalston (2009), Milan (2015), and Montana (2024).
- Public harvest is scheduled for August 18, 2024, from 2 to 4 PM.
- Denes has designed a 'City of the Future' for New York but it remains unrealized.
Entities
Artists
- Agnes Denes
Institutions
- Art Basel
- Barbican Centre
- Fondazione Trussardi
- Artribune
Locations
- Basel
- Switzerland
- Messeplatz
- Lower Manhattan
- New York
- Wall Street
- World Trade Center
- Statue of Liberty
- Dalston
- London
- United Kingdom
- Porta Nuova
- Milan
- Italy
- Montana
- United States