Art Museum Graubünden
Chur, Switzerland

With the exhibition "LandLiebe. Art and Agriculture" the Art Museum Graubünden takes up a subject that is of great significance for Switzerland as well as for Graubünden, and which has always been a predominant motif in visual art. Art long favoured an idealising notion of the peasantry by often and up until the 20th century presenting farming life in the cycle of nature. Grazing sheep in the sun or ascending farmhands are motifs, which we know from artists such as Giovanni Giacometti, Andrea Garbald or Ernst Ludwig Kirchner. In contemporary art, however, the rural idylls of old give way to a closer examination of subjects such as soil erosion or over management. Because the consideration of soil as being the origin of agriculture allows conclusions on far-reaching issues such as climate justice, or food sovereignty, the exhibition focuses on the ambivalent relationship between man and farmland. Although visual art works on farming can be found across all styles and epochs, the exhibition does not offer a historical reappraisal, but faces this charged topic calmly and associatively. Between myth and history, yearning and reality, the exhibition creates new and astonishing views on a seemingly familiar terrain.