The exhibition On Landscape: Between Escapism and Disenchantment brings together international artists, including Troika, who renegotiate the theme of landscape within the field of tension between ecological, technological, and social questions. Two forces are at the center: on the one hand, the overexploitation of the planet, and its profound human-induced transformation, as embodied in the concept of the Anthropocene; on the other, the growing power of the digital realm, accelerated by artificial intelligences that increasingly permeate everyday life and artistic practices.
Nature has never been a neutral object of depiction. Ever since landscape painting emerged as an independent genre in the 14th century, it has been a cultural construct. Whether as an idealized idyll, untouched wilderness, or a space of economy and culture — landscape has always served as a projection surface. This appropriation reached its peak in the Romantic era of the 19th century, which exalted nature in quasi-religious terms under the concept of the Sublime. Contemporary perspectives are measured against this legacy.
How do artists today engage with nature in an age of climate change, overexploitation of natural resources, pollution, and unchecked growth? Landscapes can serve as testimonies of ecological guilt in the so-called “Age of Man” — and at the same time, as places of escape for the longing for a better world. Humanity has shaped, exploited, and destroyed nature. And yet it still seeks redemption in it. It dreams of Arcadia, which never truly existed. Of Paradise, which always meant gardens, never primeval forests. And artists still set out: to the poles, into the rainforest — in search of a posthuman experience.
But what happens when landscape itself becomes artificial? When it consists of algorithms, data, and AI-generated simulations? The exhibition asks whether such artistic landscapes are merely mirrors of our alienation — or whether they hold utopian potential. On Landscape focuses consistently on the landscape genre and presents it across different media: from sculpture, painting and photography to video.
On Landscape: Zwischen Eskapismus und Entzauberung
10 September 2026 – 3 January 2027
Haus am Lützowplatz
Lützowplatz 9
10785 Berlin
Opening
Wednesday 9 September 2026
7 pm
