Opening Performances

July 5
Huhtamaki Web will perform NOMADIC FREQUENCIES from sundown to sunrise in the barn of Kunstgarage Versam.
7.30pm exhibition + drinks, 8.30pm Start Performance
You can bring your sleeping bag and listen all night long!

July 6
QUARTO will perform MOVING LANDSCAPES below Tenner Chrüz in Tenna.
Meeting Point: 6pm at Berghotel Alpenblick, Tenna. 90 minutes hiking on foot. Duration of the Performance: 45 min. Return approx. 9.30 pm in Tenna

July 7
ERNESTO NETO will perform FROM EARTH TO EARTH in Tenna.
Meeting Point: 11am at Berghotel Alpenblick Tenna. 25 minutes procession on foot. Duration of the Performance: 60 min.
Return approx. 1pm at Berghotel Alpenblick Tenna

Exhibition Guide

Available from July 5 in all restaurants, village stores and tourism points in the valley as well here for download.

Opening Program

From July 5-7, you can look forward to a great opening program with performances and artist meetings. >Detailed program. See you soon in Safiental!

(image: QUARTO, Moving Landscapes, photo: Claudio von Planta)

Teaser Video

Curatorial Statement

Curatorial Statement to the Biennale 24: 
What if? Songs from Tomorrowlands

In the summer of 2024, the voices of thirteen artists will be heard in the Alpine valley of Safiental, located in the Canton of Grisons, Switzerland. Akin to mountaineers calling to each other from mountain tops, the tales of different futures and speculative scenarios will bounce off the peaks and reverberate within the valley, amplifying the visions of these imagined tomorrows. What songs will we hear? And which ones would we like to sing along with?

The Safiental valley was shaped by the Rabiusa River, whose name translates as “raging”, and is now tamed by hydropower. The land, largely cultivated wherever the hillsides are not too steep, is dotted with dispersed settlements. To the north, the valley is bordered by the famous Rhine Gorge, a colossal wound ripped open ten thousand years ago by a landslide. In this landscape, the catastrophic is as palpable as the cultivated. The romantic and the technological meet in unexpected infrastructures.

In the site-specific exhibition What if? Songs from Tomorrowlands, artists react to this territory, looking at the Safiental valley and the Alps as a crucible for human and natural activity. The temporality of the landscape is expanded and connected with other places and times through the resonance of local and global voices, memories, and myths. In this context, “What if?” is more than just a rhetorical question, and songs are not only understood as melodies. They are tools that encourage us to go beyond the familiar and connect to ourselves, all kinds of other living beings, and the environment through new affiliations and identities, shaped by the exchange and transformation of alternative knowledge and stories. “What if” is thus understood as world-making, inviting us to seek collective healing and harmony, driven by the idea that hope is a muscle (Björk) that must constantly be exercised.

What if? Songs from Tomorrowlands refers to a relational point of view: one that listens to the whispers and collective chants from possible futures in a time of multiple choices, crises, opportunities, and catastrophes. Together, we set out to reflect on and act upon the present through the lens of the times to come – by asking ourselves in the future perfect tense (Harald Welzer): What will we have done, and what will we have left undone? How do we want to be remembered, and how can we become “a good ancestor” (Roman Krznaric)?

The thirteen voices spread across the valley, ricocheting across the meadows, forests, and rocky outcrops, reverberating questions, hopes and fears. This songbook of utopian and dystopian spells is nourished by dreams, imagination, and the speculative worlds of science fiction. In Safiental, the changing mountainous environment encourages us to question our sense of collective belonging and the way we relate to the world around us. Echoing the chorus of this increasingly sticky melody, it prompts us to practice the “What if?”.

Curators:
Anne-Laure Franchette, Josiane Imhasly, Johannes M. Hedinger, Joanna Lesnierowska

Survey

In February 2024, the Beverin Nature Park conducted a survey among the residents of Safiental regarding the ART SAFIENTAL Biennale and the ALPS ART ACADEMY summer school. The aim was to record and collect expectations, wishes and needs regarding the art and cultural initiatives. A total of 117 responses were received (952 inhabitants live in Safiental). The ILEA association will be evaluating the survey results over the next few weeks and then inviting the valley community to a discussion on the future of cultural activities in Safiental. The date and location of the event will be communicated shortly.  We would like to thank all Safiental residents who took part in the survey.

A first brief preview of the survey results can be found here:  Survey Art Safiental 2024

Crowdfunding

Save the date

July 6 – October 20, 2024
5. ART SAFIENTAL – Biennale for Land and Environmental Art
„WHAT IF? Songs from Tomorrowlands“
Safiental, Switzerland

Works by:
Ravi Agarwal + Paulina Lopez (IN, CL)
Paloma Ayala (MX/CH)
Magali Dougoud (CH)
Hemauer/Keller (CH)
Monica Ursina Jaeger (CH)
Vibeke Mascini (NL)
Ernesto Neto (BR)
Ola Maciejewska (PL)
Quarto (BR/SE)
Stefanie Salzmann (CH)
Renae Shadler (AUS/DE)
Andrea Francesco Todisco (CH)
Huhtamaki Wab (JP/UK)
a.o.

Curated by:
Anne-Laure Franchette, Johannes M. Hedinger, Josiane Imhasly, Joanna Lesnierowska

The 5. Biennale for Land and Environmental Art will take place between July 6 – October 20, 2024, in Safiental (Grisons, Switzerland). 13 national and international art positions will create temporary outdoor works in dialogue with the landscape. Distributed over the entire valley the installations will be accessible daily free of charge for around four months. A short guide with a map will be published to accompany the exhibition, followed by a catalogue in autumn. The festival center is located at Berghotel Alpenblick Tenna, which is also home to ILEA (Institute for Land and Environmental Art), the ILEA Gallery and the ILEA Residency program.

Among the over 60 artists and projects from previous Biennales, you find artists such as Lita Albuquerque, Ursula Biemann, Julius von Bismarck, James Bridle, Bob Gramsma, Ingeborg Lüscher, !Mediengruppe Bitnik, Raumlabor, Analia Saban, Roman Signer, Steiner/Lenzlinger, Ben Vautier and many others.
The founder and artistic director of the Art Safiental Biennale is Johannes M. Hedinger.
The exhibition is organized by the ILEA Institute for Land and Environmental Art, and sponsored by the Beverin Nature Park in partnership with the municipality of Safiental.

Support Culture

Dear cultural friends and shoppers at MIGROS (Switzerland): Support our association ILEA (Institute for Land and Environmental Art) with your purchase (The Support Culture-campaign only runs until April 15). Many thanks in advance! DIREKTLINK

ILEA Gallery

Well-attended opening of the exhibition “Stories of Gras“ by the Indian artist Dharmendra Prasad at ILEA Gallery. In the summer of 2022 the artist spent three months in the ILEA artist residence in Tenna, intensively researching and producing on the subject of grass (including the Grass Museum, which was part of the Biennale Art Safiental and whose facade can still be visited. During this time in Tenna, the artist began to deal intensively with grass and to work with it as a material and medium.  The exhibition shows both a retrospective of this phase, as well as the continuation of his work in India on the same theme. 

The exhibition runs until 29.10.2023 and can be visited during the opening hours of the Berghotel Alpenblick (Wed-Sat 10-22, Sun 10-18, Mo+Tues rest days), there are information sheets available on each floor for a self-guided tour. The exhibition extends over 4 floors. The exhibition is curated by Johannes M. Hedinger and Shazeb Shaikh. Produced by ILEA and EAE (Environmental Art Exchange). ILEA and ILEA Gallery is supported by Naturpark Beverin and the municipality of Safiental.
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