NordArt 2017: Carlshütte Büdelsdorf

For the 19th time, NordArt invites you to be inspired, enchanted and amazed by the pictures and sculptures, photographs and installations by selected artists from all over the world. NordArt is one of the largest annual contemporary art exhibitions in Europe. Chief curator Wolfgang Gramm promises many surprising moments in the historic iron foundry and the spacious sculpture park in 2017.

Year after year, the exhibition redefines itself and sets different focuses. In combination with the impressive backdrop of the historic iron foundry, the exhibits by over 200 artists from all over the world develop a very unique atmosphere and take visitors on an incomparable journey around the world through art.
Wolfgang Gramm: “NordArt is alive. It sees itself as a refuge and source of inspiration for artists from all over the world - this applies to internationally renowned artists as well as newcomers. NordArt is committed to promoting mutual understanding through the language of art. Every year the audience is amazed at foreign storytelling traditions, but is also amazed at how many common experiences people share, even though they live thousands of kilometers apart.”

Country focus of NordArt 2017: Denmark • “Three generations of historicity”
For several years now, NordArt has been focusing on a country with its own pavilion and has been cooperating with embassies, cultural institutions and curators from the respective countries. After focusing on China, the Baltic States, Russia, Mongolia and Israel, this year we will look at our very closest neighbor – Denmark.
When selecting the artists, curator Jette Gejl (Aarhus) based her selection on the Danish peculiarity of artist collectives and presents works by 21 artists from three generations who, although dedicated to very different topics, find their commonality in the artistic approach to the topic and the handling of the materials.
Jette Gejl: “I have been inspired by this historical kinship in which artists across generations seem to work together with a similar purpose, not just by lifting each other up, but by inspiring and challenging each other, or independently strike the same tone of the zeitgeist. The artists in the Danish pavilion at NordArt 2017 represent a wide range of generations, media, genres and geographical affiliations.”
The patronage of the Danish Pavilion is H.E. Friis Arne Petersen, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Denmark.

Focus artist of NordArt 2017: David Černý
In 2016, David Černý received the NordArt Prize worth 10,000 euros, donated by Hans-Julius and Johanna Ahlmann. Černý, who, among other things, created the golden, four-legged Trabi in the German Embassy in Prague, is one of the best-known contemporary Czech artists, and he is a highly active global citizen who looks closely at his work wherever he is deliberately provokes and triggers highly productive debates. In 2004, Černý was represented at NordArt for the first time: with two oversized babies who also crawled up the Prague television tower.

Die langjährige Kooperation mit der chinesischen Botschaft in Berlin und chinesischen Kulturinstitutionen – und die engen Kontakte zur chinesischen Kunstszene – haben schon viele spektakuläre Auftritte chinesischer Künstler in der NordArt ermöglicht. Zum 45. Jubiläum der Aufnahme der diplomatischen Beziehungen zwischen Deutschland und China ist erneut ein größerer Raum Kunst aus China gewidmet. Kooperationspartner: Chinesisches Kulturministerium; Botschaft der Volksrepublik China in der Bundesrepublik Deutschland; Volkswagen AG; Xu Bing Studio; Culture, Sports and Tourism Administration of Shenzhen Municipality; Shenzhen Shangqi Cultural Diffusion Co., Ltd

Kunstwerk Carlshütte
The hosts at the Kunstwerk Carlshütte are the entrepreneurial couple Hans-Julius and Johanna Ahlmann.
The Carlshütte work of art is a non-profit cultural initiative of the internationally active ACO Group and the cities of Büdelsdorf and Rendsburg. The focus is NordArt, which has taken place annually in the summer months since 1999 and features over 200 selected artists from all over the world. Their stage is the huge halls of the historic iron foundry with their 22,000 square meters of floor space and an 80,000 square meter sculpture park.