The Wanås Foundation is a non-profit art foundation located in the south of Sweden on an estate consisting of a medieval castle, an organic farm, and a sculpture park.
Since 1987, the Park holds a constantly growing number of permanent artworks by internationally renowned contemporary artists. The focus is on sculpture and installations, most of which are made by the artists specifically for the Wanås Foundation. In 2005, a renovated stable from 1759 was renovated into a temporary exhibition space. A catalogue is published for every exhibition.
The permanent collection of the Wanås Foundation holds over 40 site-specific outdoor installations and sculptures including Wanås Walk by Janet Cardiff (1998), Together and Apart by Antony Gormley (1998), Two Different Anamorphic Surfaces by Dan Graham (2000), Wanås Wall by Jenny Holzer (2002), Wanås by Per Kirkeby (1994), Eleven Minute Line by Maya Lin (2004), Impostor by Roxy Paine (1999), Les Inséparables by Esther-Shalev Gerz (2008), Fideicommissum by Ann-Sofi Sidén (2000), and A House for Edwin Denby by Robert Wilson (2000). The indoor installations include Vertigo by Charlotte Gyllenhammar (2002), lignum by Ann Hamilton (2002) and Graf Spee by Jan Håfström in collaboration with Carl Michael von Hausswolff and Juan Pedro Fabra (2007).
Seminars take place at Wanås on a regular basis, including Risks of Maturing – Visions and Choices in 2003, Louise Bourgeois in 2007, Contemporary Memorials in 2008, and Art and Ecology in 2009. The Foundation also publishes books such as Art at Wanås (2001) describing the collection and each artist’s working process, Ann Hamilton lignum (2005), focusing on the artist’s long-term installation in the Wanås barn from 1823, and Louise Bourgeois: Maman from 2008.
Wanås Gods AB runs a certified organic farm and forestry since 1999. In 2009 the Wanås Foundation decided to join the environmental effort, and became a member of the Nordic Ecolabel Club, the certification available to Swedish cultural institutions. As a member, the Foundation commits to ecologically sustainable purchases and habits. Besides extensive administrative changes, the Foundation launched its environmental work by presenting an exhibition, Footprints, with artists such as Tue Greenfort, Henrik Håkansson and Tomas Saraceno, who have a long established interest in man’s relationship to nature. “Wanås Goes Green” was the initial slogan for 2009 and the institution will continue its environmental efforts at a place where agriculture and art meet.
