7 Walks in Skagen
22/06/2022
In their walks Vermeir & Heiremans address property relations and distribution of value. They explore how more sustainable and equitable practices could govern natural and artistic resources…
Vermeir & Heiremans will organise a public walk around the former art colony in Skagen. The Skagen Painters were a group of Scandinavian artists who gathered in the fishermen’s village from the late 1870s until the turn of the century. Skagen attracted northern artists to paint ‘en plein air’, emulating the French Impressionists in their visualisations of the landscape, and their own social gatherings. Some members of the Skagen colony were also influenced by Realist movements and depicted the harsh and dangerous life of the local fishing community. With their depictions of the natural beauty and the specific light merging sea and sky, the art colony attracted attention to the area, bringing in droves of tourists which made it difficult to continue their summer gatherings.
7 Walks is a site-specific project, strongly anchored in different local situations: the spa towns that sprang up throughout Europe, and their surrounding ‘therapeutic’ landscapes. The ambition of this research trajectory however is to contextualize local practices of ownership in a broader social, legal and political reading. This will become manifest in the different instalments 7 Walks intends to generate in a variety of places and contexts. The different public installments that took place will be distributed further in formats such as conferences, publications, exhibitions, performances…