'Podninger' wins exhibition award: Anne Julie Arnfred in ambitious art project
'Podninger', an ambitious exhibition format based in Underskoven — a 16-hectare art forest on Ærø - has won the Bikuben Foundation's Exhibition Award Vision 2025, along with DKK 4 million to carry out the project.
Postdoctoral researcher and curator Anne Julie Arnfred from PASS at the Department of Art and Cultural Studies is one of four project members, alongside Camilla Berner, the artist behind Underskoven; Gry Hedin, project researcher at the National Gallery of Denmark (SMK); and film director Sebastian Schiørring. Over the next four years, they will explore how art can contribute to and renew our perception of nature. The project blends art, research and citizen involvement to examine how forest restoration can shape our future understanding of nature.
“A graft is an ancient botanical technique in which two different tree species are joined so that a new life can emerge. That is what we are doing with this project. Just as the gardener grafts plants together, we graft together different artistic perspectives, views of nature, and areas of expertise - creating new visions of the forest,” says Anne Julie Arnfred about 'Podninger'.
Between 2026 and 2029, four graftings will be held, each rooted in the forest’s rhythm and seasons. The project begins with a forest workshop in Underskoven and then moves to four museums around the country, where insights from the forest are grafted onto works in the museums’ collections, questioning how art has been - and continues to be - involved in shaping our ideas of the forest.
In 2029, 'Podninger' will culminate in the formulation of a Forest Charter conveying the project’s insights to civil servants and decision-makers.
Read more about 'Podninger' (in Danish).