Groupshow Agritourism at Gunia Nowik Gallery

Aga Beaupré, Ramona Güntert, Margaret Raspé, Scott Young, Ada Zielińska
Agritourism
curated by Natalia Grabowska

Jul 6 – Sep 14, 2024

Gunia Nowik Gallery
Bracka 20a, Warsaw, Poland

The development of agriculture provided the surplus of food needed for humans to form and inhabit cities. Through the cultivation (exploitation) of and use (abuse) of natural resources, commodities were produced to sustain lives, needs and wants in large agglomerations. This process and cycle of growing and extracting from land in rural areas enabled the development of culture as it is commonly defined today – the human intellectual inventions, achievements and expressions in arts, humanities, music, literature, law and others. Intertwined from their very beginning, nature and culture order the world around us and choreograph our daily actions.

This exhibition brings together works that speak about our relationship with nature, culture and objects. Exploring the correlation between them and the human need to preserve, control, heal and destroy, the works in the show point towards different ways in which we order the environment around us – both natural and man-made – and highlight the fluidity of these terms. Through works in a variety of media, including painting, sculpture, video, photography and sound installations by artists from across generations, the exhibition presents the complex mechanical, extractive, artificial, organic and tender ways in which people interact, connect and construct the environment.

The show’s title – Agritourism – nods towards a touristic approach that humans have taken towards the planet – building a world that suits only us, despite the harmful consequences for the natural habitat, of which we are inevitably part.