Wanås Day Party May 4
On the opening day, there will be talks with the artists, guided tours and an open workshop in the studio. The cafe serves street food with a DJ and outdoor bar.
Book a bus to the party! On the day of the opening, you can take a round-trip bus from Malmö/Copenhagen to Wanås. Get tickets here. The buses have a limited number of seats, so book your seat today!
Program May 4
11.00–15.00 Get to know the new artworks. A guide will be present at each artwork to explain and answer questions.
12.00 Opening Speech. Outdoor lounge
12.30 Fish pond game for all kids! In cooperation with Lekolar. Outdoor Studio
15.00 Conversation between the artists and Milena Høgsberg. Studio (limited number of seats, first come, first served)
Throughout the day Drop-in creative workshop for all ages – get inspired by this year’s exhibition and create together. Studio Indoor and Outdoor
About the exhibition
Not too far from Wanås, on the seabed of the Hanö Bay, the remains of a prehistoric pine forest, dating back to 10,000 B.C., is a reminder of the evolving nature of ecosystems, on land and at sea—nature was here before us and will likely be here after. The Ocean in the Forest is the anchoring image of the exhibition, inviting four international artists—Youmna Chlala, Evan Ifekoya, Lavanya Mani and Eduardo Navarro—to explore its dreamlike essence, in response to the unique site of Wanås.
Amid intense political, economic, and ecological pressures affecting us collectively, it became important to push beyond apocalyptic visions of humaninduced climate disaster. Instead, we dove deep into a more expansive, sensorial understanding of the oceanic and the stories and fables that shape humanity’s relationship with the planet and its diverse life forms.
The artworks explore an intuitive connection to the ocean through our bodies, cellular and genetic memories, and our shared experience starting in the womb. Rather than offering clear-cut statements or answers, the artists invite us into their interior landscapes, and ask us to observe, listen and become attuned to our surroundings. We hope that the art projects will inspire careful attention to which words, thoughts, stories, sounds and sensations we give our focus and our energy, because they write our shared history. Dreams and storytelling are vital since they expand our horizon on what it means to be human, and sometimes offer the seeds we need to collectively envision alternative futures. It is our hope that this exhibition will offer a new way to sense and experience the forest at Wanås, whether you are a new or returning visitor.
About the artists
Youmna Chlala (born in Beirut, Lebanon and based in New York, USA) uses drawing, sculpture and installation to explore language, fate and architecture. In Chlala's installation in the park, a group of deckchairs forms a streak of color on the horizon and invite the viewer to sit back and listen to a poetic story where the artist's childhood memories of Beirut are mixed with reflections on the nature of the sea and forest.
Evan Ifekoya (b. 1988 in Iperu, Nigeria, based in London, UK) is interested in the interaction between sound, architecture, nature and the human body. On a hill in the sculpture park, Ifekoya has made an architectural intervention in a gazebo or “folly” thought to have been constructed by the landowners in the 1920s, creating a sensory space for movement, sound and energy and their healing and transformative power.
Eduardo Navarro (b. 1979, based in Argentina) creates situations that affect the senses and our perception of the world around us. In the sculpture park, Navarro invites the visitor and the wind to playfully interact with a huge jellyfish-like sculpture wrapping an old oak tree.