Artist Katharina Grosse has painted a section of urban landscape at Mindeparken in Aarhus with red and white acrylic paint.
Her work, which is part of an ongoing exhibition at the ARoS Kunstmuseum called ‘The Garden’, is drawing a huge reaction – but most of it is not positive.
“I think it’s terrible,” Aarhus resident Heidi Gadegaard Kristensen told TV2 News.
“It’s one of the cruellest things I’ve ever seen.”
“Poisonous”
Kristensen decided to check out the newly-painted shrubs, trees and grass after hearing about the work from a Facebook user who had complained bitterly that the green space had been “covered in poisonous paint”.
However, ARoS director Erlend Høyerstein thinks that people are overreacting.
“They need to read a little more about the materials we are using and our plans for the area afterwards,” he said.
Høyerstein promises that once the exhibit has closed, the area will be professionally cleaned.
Who’s behind it?
Ango Winther, the chairperson of the technical and environmental committee on Aarhus Municipality’s city council, wants to know who authorised the painting.
“We work to preserve green environments, and I think it is a bit wild to allow something like this in a natural area,” he said.
There is a meeting planned to clarify who granted permission for the artwork.
