Spectacular art in idyllic Oranjewoud

From all around the world, Paradys brings visual art to Oranjewoud to challenge this idyll. Curator Hans den Hartog commissions 15 top international artists to create new work, inspired by the location and Oranjewoud’s rich history. Anything goes, from critical commentary on the outside world and the power this place has generated, to attempts to make a location like Oranjewoud even more paradisal.

The exhibition consists of new work by Marianna Simnett, Charles Avery, Mercedes Azpilicueta, Diana Scherer, Erik van Lieshout, Augustas Serapinas, Isa van Lier, Jakob Kudsk Steensen, Kasper Bosmans, Renzo Martens / CATPC, Alexandra Pirici and Em’kal Eyongakpa.

Arcadian Oranjewoud

Oranjewoud is a classical idyll, created by the Frisian Nassaus. It is a meticulously proportioned outdoor pleasure dome and a product of the idea that nature can be tamed and paradise manufactured. Precisely because Oranjewoud is not a neutral location, it offers artists the perfect opportunity to push against the world, to question and disrupt it. Some of the artworks in Paradys enhance the location’s beauty and poignancy, others provide a context or a history. Other works ask where all this came from. This means that Paradys deals with major, contemporary issues. Is it still possible nowadays to create an ideal world? For whom is that world intended? And most of all: what does that world look like?

Locations

Paradys will take place in and around the Oranjewoud park landscape near Heerenveen. The country estates surround Hotel Tjaarda will serve as the heart of the exhibition, villages like Knipe and Katlijk form the periphery. The artworks will be on display at a variety of locations spread across this area. The exhibition will take place outdoors as well as indoors, depending on the type of work.