Sowing and Weeding

Folk Culture in Contemporary Art

Over 20 young artists approach this tricky topic – sowing and weeding, and the transformation of specific folk cultures within contemporary art – from a host of different angles, coming up with a wealth of thought-provoking and entertaining works of art. Based on a German-U.S. exhibition, this lavishly illustrated catalog is focused on the construct of an “old” folk culture, in the final throes of dissolution, and how it can still become part of the creative process, in positive or negative ways. Just as Kandinsky, Jorn and Beuys idealised folk culture in the romantic tradition as the vehicle of a primordial energy, so this group of artists insists that “the more the ruination of the world proceeds, the better the everyday world of the peasant lends itself to a regressive idealization.”

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