Exhibition - PARADEISER

07.08 - 29.08.26

The historical term “Paradise apple” forms the starting point of the exhibition “Paradeiser.” The title connects the Paradise apple with the term Paradeiser and opens up an associative space between myth and the present, nature and culture, memory and the future.

The exhibition does not understand the garden as an idyllic place of retreat, but as a site of permanent transformation. Growth and decay, care and intervention, abundance and loss coexist within it. The garden becomes an image of a living network of relations, in which ecological, social, and cultural processes overlap and intertwine.

“Paradeiser” does not conceive of paradise as a lost place of origin, but as a model for our relationship with the world. The garden becomes a space in which questions of care, coexistence, and mutual dependency converge. Against the backdrop of ecological and social transformations, the four artistic positions explore new ways of thinking about the relationship between human and more-than-human forms of life.

The works presented focus on the interconnections between humans, animals, plants, and landscapes. They approach gardens as places of memory, transformation, and becoming, and propose images of nature that is not a backdrop or a resource, but an autonomous counterpart – vulnerable, resilient, and in constant change.

“Paradeiser” invites us to reconsider familiar ideas of nature and human existence. The future is not understood as a return to an idealised paradise, but as a shared practice of being-with – an ongoing process of negotiation, care, and responsibility within a complex web of life.

The PARADEISER exhibition at the Vijion Art Gallery in Pontives will be open daily from 4 to 7 p.m. during the Val Gardena Art Festival from September 7 to 20, 2026. An opening reception with an aperitif will take place on Saturday, September 12, at 11 a.m. We look forward to your visit!

Participating artist: Julia Bornefeld, Florian Borkenhagen, Philipp Putzer and Mischa Sanders

Julia Bornefeld

Julia Bornefeld, born in Kiel, Germany, in 1963, studied painting at the Academy of Fine Arts in Kiel, the Academy of Fine Arts in Venice under Emilio Vedova, and the Academy of Fine Arts in Ljubljana.

Bornefeld’s artistic practice is distinguished by its consistently interdisciplinary approach, bringing together painting, sculpture, photography, performance, and site-specific installation in a multilayered visual language. Within her work, material, form, and space become equally significant agents of meaning, expanding the traditional notion of the artwork through a contemporary exploration of identity, transformation, and perception.

A defining characteristic of her oeuvre is the experimental use of diverse materials, whose coexistence creates both formal and conceptual tension. Organic and anthropomorphic forms intersect with a powerful visual language that moves between abstraction and figuration, finding expression in paintings, sculptural works, and immersive spatial installations alike.

Over the course of several decades, Julia Bornefeld has developed a distinctive artistic vocabulary centered on the dynamic relationship between artwork, space, and viewer. Her works invite audiences to question habitual modes of perception and to engage with new layers of meaning. Balancing the physical presence of materials with conceptual reflection, her installations, sculptures, and paintings possess a compelling poetic intensity, encouraging viewers to reconsider familiar perspectives and experience space in new and unexpected ways.

Florian Borkenhagen

German artist and designer Florian Borkenhagen is Professor at the AMD Academy of Fashion & Design in Hamburg. Throughout his career he has maintained studios in Paris, Como, and Munich, while leading workshops and developing projects internationally, including in Rome, Dakar, and Cairo. Borkenhagen’s practice deliberately operates at the intersection of art and design. Since 1982, his work has been exhibited in numerous galleries and museums across Europe and the United States, including documenta 8 in Kassel.

At the core of his artistic practice is the transformation of the everyday. Familiar objects are removed from their original function through processes of deconstruction, recontextualization, and reinterpretation, acquiring new conceptual and poetic significance. Combining conceptual precision with subtle wit, Borkenhagen challenges viewers to reconsider the ordinary and to perceive reality from unexpected perspectives. Found objects and everyday materials become vehicles for reflection on social, cultural, and human experience. By altering, dismantling, and recombining recognizable forms, he creates works that oscillate between irony and insight, inviting audiences to question habitual ways of seeing and interpreting the world.

Throughout his multifaceted oeuvre, Borkenhagen has explored the paradoxes and absurdities of contemporary life. His works transform the commonplace into the extraordinary, revealing the poetic potential embedded within ordinary things while encouraging a critical and playful engagement with the realities of everyday existence.

Philipp Putzer & Mischa Sanders

Born in 1994, Philipp Putzer and Mischa Sanders form an artistic duo whose practice is distinguished by an experimental, material-driven approach. Mischa Sanders, born in the Netherlands, began her artistic studies in Besançon, France, before completing her education at the Academy of Fine Arts Dresden. Philipp Putzer, born in Innsbruck, studied sculpture at the same institution. Through residencies, workshops, and collaborative projects, the duo has worked internationally, including in Portugal, France, Côte d’Ivoire, and Senegal, experiences that have profoundly shaped the development of their artistic practice.

At the core of their work lies the transformation of both material and meaning. Found objects, fragments, and drawings are collected, combined, and reconfigured into complex sculptural compositions. Through this process, forms continuously evolve, oscillating between memory, imagination, and material reality. Their works evoke shipwrecks, archaeological remains, and architectural relics, suggesting traces of time embedded within contemporary matter.

Cracks, seams, and ornamental joints become repositories of memory, revealing layered histories and processes of transformation. Organic sculptural forms evoke associations with vegetation, growth, and decay, establishing a subtle dialogue between nature and architecture, construction and erosion.

The traces of making remain intentionally visible; nothing is polished to perfection or presented as complete. This openness lends the works their experimental character. Putzer and Sanders challenge conventional formal categories, dissolving the traditional boundaries between object, space, and viewer. Their sculptures and installations become experiential environments in which perceptual disorientation serves as a catalyst for reflection, inviting audiences to reconsider established ways of seeing and to discover new layers of meaning.