Nature as Infrastructure
A virtual program conceived by The Winter Office
A partnership between The Winter Office, Adelaide, Atlantis Lumière, and Triangle France - Astérides, as part of Manifesta 13 - Les Parallèles du Sud. Supported by the Région Sud - Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, The Danish Arts Foundation, and the CNAP Centre national des arts plastiques.
Originally invited by Wilfrid Almendra to curate an exhibition and public program in Adelaide, The Winter Office chose to create a one-month digital program, opening up numerous essential collective and shared conversations today.
The program Nature As Infrastructure synthesizes The Winter Office’s research lines, focusing primarily on the relationships between nature, humans, and the urban environment, while reflecting the plurality of collaborations the collective has conducted with SixtyEight Art Institute and Really Simple Syndication Press, both based in Copenhagen.
Drawing from a collection of artistic proposals brought together for the first time here, this program questions the conditions for re-connecting with nature, a renewal of society, and the design of public spaces that reintroduce nature into cities. It will present films, ideas, and conversations from artists and theorists who share The Winter Office’s concerns and explore how the concept of “nature as infrastructure” can be invoked through artistic strategies.
The program includes works by Raul Baltazar, Filip Vest, Madeleine Andersson, Ingrid Book & Carina Hedén, Hugo Hopping, Frans Jacobi and Gitte Sætre, the Living Unliving Surveillance Poet, and THE WINTER OFFICE; a poetry reading by David Lau, as well as conversations with Gitte Juul, Anja Franke, Jeanne Betak, Laure Jaumouillé, Abdessamad El Montassir, and Cédric Fauq. It also includes discussions around Peter Brandt’s publication No Safe Space, moderated by Aurélia Defrance, and Cerro Point Blanco by the Lehman Brothers, moderated by Oscar Salguero. Jeanne Betak also presents A New Nature by Anders Abraham, and the program will conclude with a lecture by Jeffrey C. Stewart.
The program will conclude with the launch of a new publication, Nature as Infrastructure, published by Really Simple Syndication Press. This text introduces the importance of generating more demanding norms for spatial justice, particularly through the design of urban forests, while advocating for new roles for citizen participation. This event will be moderated by Elzélina Van Melle.
The entire Nature as Infrastructure program aims to imagine new roles for nature, as both infrastructure and a catalyst for a conversation about the power of creative action in managing natural disasters. It is about thinking of the potential for redistribution through artist-run organizations and advocating that every regeneration project requires new modes of imagination and design in architecture, landscaping, art, and “communities of practice” in search of solutions.
A virtual program designed by Hugo Hopping in close collaboration with Lise Grüner Bertelsen, Camilo Montoya, and Johanna Ferrer Guldager of THE WINTER OFFICE; with the support of Wilfrid Almendra and Aurélia Defrance for Adelaide and Bruise Magazine; with long-term collaboration from Christopher Sand-Iversen and Katie Mcdougall of SixtyEight Art Institute; and Céline Kopp from Triangle France - Astérides.
The Winter Office is a working group composed of artists, exhibition curators, architects, designers, and social science specialists, founded in 2010 by American artist Hugo Hopping and Danish architect/urban planner Johanna Ferrer Guldager. The Winter Office is involved in various artistic and architectural initiatives, advocating for new uses of design and social/urban planning. To this end, the group is constantly seeking challenges through the production of objects, constructions, research, and exhibitions to introduce non-ideal values of spatial justice to improve the quality of the built environment. The group is based in Copenhagen, Denmark.
Adelaide is a place for exchange, conversation, and experimentation, where ideas, as well as tools, can be shared. It is a place of activity, work, transition, and generosity. Adelaide was founded by Wilfrid Almendra in 2017 in Marseille, France.
