Since its first edition in 1977, the Skulptur Projekte Münster has established itself as one of the most important international events for contemporary art in the public sphere. The omnipresence of nature in the works displayed during the first three editions of the Skulptur Projekte (1977, 1987, and 1997), both as an environment and as a medium, is striking.

The important role played by green spaces, gardens, forests, and lakes, i.e., semi-natural sites that humans have landscaped for enjoyment as well as community life, reminds us how much the pairing of nature and identity contributed to the emergence of a national sentiment in Germany from the Romantic period onwards, especially through the conception of landscape in painting and art theory. But the role of nature at the Skulptur Projekte Münster also relates to the international artistic context of the late 1970s, which was marked by the global spread of land art and site-specific practices and was followed by numerous discussions about ‘art in the public sphere’ during the 1980s. Nature’s role should be questioned all the more since Germany has been a pioneer of the ecological movement – led by Joseph Beuys, among others. Today, the role of nature should also be historicized in light of the most recent theories, in particular that of the Anthropocene, which emerged in the 1990s and is becoming increasingly popular among art historians.