By the artist and initiator of the project Andrea Hildebrandt guest artists are invited to work for a limited time on the little farm in Weitenhagen (the foreshore of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, about 20 km south of the city Barth).
A gueststay offers concentration for the artist and provides the opportunity for confrontation with the local/spatial conditions in tension with urban structures/urban life. A place that creates the best conditions to reflect reality, to visualize artistic thinking processes. Requests for a guest stay with concrete concept for a project are possible at any time. Location-based projects dealing with the spatial context are favored. The aim is also the realization of projects in public space in the region. Also artists from other fields, such as musicians, dancers, writers are welcome to submit a project proposal. Interdisciplinary work can make interesting synergies. The project and the location are regarded as an open space, as experimental field of artistic methods, statements and analysis. The project oscillates at the interface between visual arts and art theory and wants to integrate aspects of sustainability.
The point of interest is, to find out how various artists understand nature. Does the exchange of nature to culture - the irretrievable distance between man and nature - to understand this as a romantic refuge? Or do artists increasingly orient on reality - our technological world - which is characterized by the constant urge to economic and scientific progress, even across borders of ethical and moral principles? The traditional idea of a ideal of natural landscape, for example, in the 21 Century is in contrast to reality - to populated areas fragmented by huge radio masts, wind turbines and high voltage lines.
What are the signs of the acceptance of denaturation of man and his environment in the artistic work? Aren´t we already the creator of our "own" nature? The question of the relationship between the traditional view of nature to reality and how this is reflected in it, is point of interest. As well we want to figure out, how environmental problems associated with socio-political processes are reflected in the arts and whether and how solutions are given. The residencies, in which artists are dealing with the issue and also the exhibitions in the projectspace / on the property (also to realize projects in public spaces in the region is considered) take place consciously in the given spatial context, in the middle of agricultural areas dominated rural / provincial structures. So exactly at the place, where the ratio of people to nature and landscape is shaped by centuries of tradition of rural-agricultural use and therefore the care of once - more or less intact - cultural landscape up to this destabilization by increasing monocultural land use by agricultural corporations and farming in modern times. Confrontation with the artistic work can thereby raise the viewers awareness to the subject matter and the global contexts, it can result to reflection on our own perception, our understanding of nature and lead to new thought processes and consciousness.