Nature Inspires Art in San Diego

Rigo 23 Artists Respond Exhibit Photo
Image source: Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

Watching the world around us and the changes big and small that occur all the time, sometimes you just have to do something to reflect what you are experiencing. It is this need to create that brings Human Nature: Artists Responding to a Changing Planet to the Museum of Contemporary Art in San Diego. The exhibit, on display until February 1, 2009, is part of an artist residency program "investigating the relationships between fragile natural environments and the human communities that depend on them." In practice, that meant sending 8 prominent artists to threatened locations around the world and then let them work their magic.

The program is organized by the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, the University of California Berkeley and Pacific Film Archive. Artists went to UNESCO World Heritage sites and then created what they saw/felt. The work resulted in interactive exhibits pushing museum-goers to also ponder the relationships between art and conservation.

Artists involved in the project are:

Mark Dion - Komodo National Park, Indonesia

Ann Hamilton - Galapagos National Park, Ecuador

Inigo Manglavo-Ovalle - El Vizcaino Biosphere Reserve, Mexico

Marcos Ramirez ERRE - Three Parallel Rivers of Yunnan Protected Areas, China

Rigo 23 - Atlantic Forest Southeast Reserves, Brazil

Dario Robleto - Glacier/Waterton International Peace Park, United States (Montana) & Canada

Diana Thater - iSimangaliso Wetland Park, South Africa

Xu Bing - Mount Kenya National Park, Kenya

For those of you not in the San Diego area, you can see much of the experiment and commentary online at:Artists Respond ::Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego

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