Gropius Bau hosts sprawling exhibition 'Garden of Earthly Delights' exploring nature and society
The 'Garden of Earthly Delights' exhibition, curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, took place at Gropius Bau in Berlin from July 26 to December 1, 2019. It showcased the works of 22 artists and collectives, organized around five central themes: 'Pairidaeza, Paradise, Utopia, Dystopia', 'Anthropocene, Chthulucene', 'Urban Gardening', 'Garden as a System / Structure of Thought', and 'Colonialism, Migration, Botany'. Featured installations included Rashid Johnson's 'Antoine's Organ' (2016), Zheng Bo's 'Fern as Method' (2019), Pipilotti Rist's 'Homo Sapiens Sapiens' (2005), and Heather Phillipson's 'Mesocosmic Indoor Overture' (2019). Additional works comprised Uriel Orlow's 'Theatrum Botanicum' (2015–18) and Tacita Dean's 'Michael Hamburger' (2007). The exhibition sought to reexamine the connections between humans and nature.
Key facts
- Exhibition ran from July 26 to December 1, 2019 at Gropius Bau in Berlin
- Curated by Stephanie Rosenthal, featuring 22 artists and collectives
- Organized into five thematic areas including colonialism and urban gardening
- Rashid Johnson's 'Antoine's Organ' included books by W. E. B. Du Bois and Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Zheng Bo's works involved ferns and videos of nude men in forests
- Pipilotti Rist's installation required viewers to lie on pillows to watch a projected film
- Heather Phillipson's piece featured tree trunks, speakers, and videos with a posthuman theme
- Lungiswa Gqunta's 'Lawn I' used broken glass to address race relations in South Africa
Entities
Artists
- Rashid Johnson
- Zheng Bo
- Pipilotti Rist
- Heather Phillipson
- Tacita Dean
- Uriel Orlow
- Lungiswa Gqunta
- Hieronymus Bosch
- W. E. B. Du Bois
- Richard Wright
- Ta-Nehisi Coates
- Michael Hamburger
Institutions
- Gropius Bau
- ArtReview
- Futurefarmers
- School of Bosch
Locations
- Berlin
- Germany
- San Francisco
- United States
- Johannesburg
- South Africa
- Cape Town
- Taiwan