Exhibition: Plastic Reef at ‘Ja Natuurlijk’, GEM/Gemeentemuseum, Den Haag, NL
Opening preview: 14/03/2013
Open: 15/03 – 16/08/2013
Location: GEM, Stadhouderslaan 41, 2517 HV Den Haag, The Netherlands

Yes Naturally is an international art event initiated by Stichting Niet Normaal under the artistic direction of Ine Gevers. The key question in Yes Naturally is ‘What is natural, and who or what decides?’ Are human beings the only ones to have a say or do animals, plants and inanimate objects also have a role to play?

The exhibition will offer a thrilling tour of the natural world, including both clichéd images of romantic landscapes with waterfalls and the hard and inescapable facts of environmental degradation. It will wake us up to the reality of oil slicks and genetically modified fish, but suggest that solutions to environmental problems can be found if we are prepared to change our habits: through recycling and new kinds of cooperation we can save the planet. Artists will propose new and unconventional approaches. The exhibition will include work by Francis Alÿs, Jimmie Durham, Olafur Eliasson, Atelier van Lieshout, Zeger Reyers, Superflex, Ai Weiwei and others.

More than 80 artists will use this grand-scale exhibition to present surprising partnerships between humans, nature and technology. The results are both liberating and hilarious: you can design your own pet, fungi turn out to be our best friends, you can harvest the city and seagulls are quite tasty on the barbeque. But also: your smartphone is your memory, Facebook is your habitat, internet the new biotope and nanoparticles have become an integral part of our existence.