Artscape Norway - invitation to the exhibition at GJF

Galerie Jaroslava Fragnera invites you on a journey into Norwegian nature - but with contemporary art and design
Monumental sculptures, suspended viewpoints, original resting spots or signposts, in short, a gallery in nature. These are the tourist attractions along trails woven into the stunning Norwegian landscape. While in the Czech Republic, monuments, lookout towers, or “lodges” remain dominant tourist attractions, in Norway, it is contemporary art sensitively integrated into the landscape.
The Prague Gallery Jaroslava Fragnera presents several dozen of these projects as part of the multimedia exhibition project Artscape Norway from February 19 to April 3, 2016. Captivating creations in the Norwegian landscape are brought closer through photographs by three top photographers, which are themselves works of art. They are signed by Czech-Norwegian photographer Jiří Havran, a Czech-based author Filip Šlapal, and Norwegian photographer Jarle Wæhler.
Their large-format images in the Gallery Jaroslava Fragnera are complemented by a documentary "Country of Cool Prospects" by young filmmaker Jan Strejcovský and videos explaining the realization of selected artifacts on Norwegian national tourist routes, in public spaces, and in open landscapes. The entire project will also include a two-day workshop and conference at Vítkov in Prague on the topic of aesthetics in specific landscapes – the Vítkov Hill, involving both Norwegian and Czech artists.
Norway has bet since 1994 on a combination of tourism, nature conservation, and contemporary art. The local authorities subsequently established 18 national tourist routes crossing the entire country, totaling 2,060 kilometers. Their milestones have become resting spots, viewpoints, and other functional structures, as well as sculptures and small architecture in the landscape - all according to designs by young creators from around the world.
Not only is the result remarkable, attracting hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the globe each year. The path that led to this "Norwegian miracle" can also be very inspiring for the domestic environment. The entire concept and individual realizations involved ecologists, landscape architects and urban planners, art historians, and also experts in tourism and representatives of local government.
Individual installations were selected based on architectural competitions primarily aimed at the young architectural generation. The jury selected the highest quality proposals, thanks to which the National Tourist Routes in Norway are now alive with hundreds of resting spots, viewpoints, staircases, descents to water sources, or ascents into the hills, cafés, various exhibitions, and information centers. Thanks to the inventiveness of the creators, previously unknown corners of the Norwegian landscape have been made accessible.
The project gradually involved world-renowned artists - for example, British sculptor Tony Cragg, his Indian colleague Anish Kapoor, or Italian Luciano Fabro. Not only the names but primarily the artistic strength of the sculptures invite visitors to the "Norwegian gallery under the open sky." Art also contributes significantly to the economic success of the entire venture.
“I cannot think of many better examples of the intertwining of architecture, art, and public space than the project of the National Tourist Routes in Norway. They are also distinguished by simplicity and a resignation to effects and ostentation. Identifying with the individual places of intoxicating Norwegian nature, they are becoming solid reference points in the landscape. They offer an experience associated with the memory and experience of visitors,” explains Artscape Norway exhibition curator Dan Merta from the Gallery Jaroslava Fragnera.
The project was supported within the EEA framework, program CZ 06 – cultural heritage and contemporary art. Supported by a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein, and Norway.

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