“Scheibe & Güntzel”
comprise the Hamburg-based artists, Jan Philip Scheibe and Swaantje Güntzel (both b. 1972), who regularly collaborate on joint projects as an artist-duo alongside their individual practices. Both artists engage deeply with the reception of nature and the role played by humans in shaping landscapes: Jan Philip Scheibe analyses the various facets underpinning romanticised idealisations of nature, whereas Swaantje Güntzel has engaged for over 15 years with the radical changes wrought upon nature by human interventions. Her work examines the global challenges induced by anthropogenic climate change, plastic pollution in oceans, the extinction of species, and the ensuing psychological consequences which these have upon mankind. Initiated in 2009, Scheibe & Güntzel’s participatory series, PRESERVED, reflects the relationships of dependency which mankind has developed to nature. The project offers an importantcontribution to political discourse in the wake of increasing sensitivity towards ecological themes in the present.
In their project, PRESERVED // Altland – Neuland [Gemüseschießen] (PRESERVED // Old Land – New Land [Vegetable Shooting]), the artist-duo, Scheibe & Güntzel, explored the ways in which the landscape of Westphalia will be transformed through the effects of climate change. For this work, the artists reactivated two plots of the Baroque vegetable garden of Senden Castle in the spring of 2020, laying down a newly ‘disordered’ garden through a specially-conceived performance (‘Vegetable Shooting’). The seeds deployed for this performance reflect the development of vegetable cultivation in the region, both past and present, and in the future. Over the course of the year of the realizatiion of the project in 2020, the artists implemented an accompanying programme comprising performances, interventions, cooking events and tours for the host institution, Senden Castle, as well as at partnering locations, the Kreislehrgarten Steinfurt and the Biologisches Zentrum Kreis Coesfeld. In the process, the work not only made visible the effects of climate change on Westphalia’s countryside, but also mirrored the emotional significance of the anthropogenic changes incurred upon the landscape for the people.
https://vimeo.com/420722639 (in German)
