Rune Bosse
Behind the Surface
- ArtistRune Bosse
- PhotographerPaul Skovbakke and Anders Sune Berg
Rasmus Astrup Rune Bosse is a Danish visual and installation artist whose work explores nature, especially trees, plants and growth cycles, as both material and subject. The exhibition ‘Behind the Surface’ (2024), is a site-specific living sculpture in a greenhouse at Ordrupgaard (DK), where a dense vertical field of grain was grown as a sculptural room. Visitors could walk inside surrounded by towering grain stalks and exposed roots, and experience nature’s hidden structures in a vivid, immersive way.
The Living Sculpture
Rune Bosse occupies the greenhouse at Kunstparken with Bagved Overfladen, a site-specific, living sculpture that revives the greenhouse’s original function as a space of growth, now reimagined in monumental vertical form. The installation invites visitors to move inside the structure, surrounded by towering walls of cultivated grain and flowers, before encountering the exposed roots that usually remain hidden underground.
Bosse transforms the familiar Danish cornfield into an architectural, immersive environment, where organic processes unfold visibly over time. Visitors witness the seasonal rhythm, the effect of sunlight, and the continuous cycle of growth, flowering, and decay, making the work a constantly evolving testament to nature’s forces and fragility.
A Poem: Behind the surface
Rune Bosse composed the poem for Bagved Overfladen, a textual counterpart to the installation that illuminates the conceptual heart of the work:
Behind the surface
Do we know the field,
And the straws reaching for the sky?
The roots moving towards gravity,
Reproduction – a slow inhalation and exhalation
The grain, cultivated In the greenhouse, controlled, Miming a possible future.
We follow the rhythm of seasons,
In the sea, points of time appear,
we are part of a flora,
Spots of poppy and cornflower.
To comprehend, we must move.
We raise up the field,
We change our perspective.
our observations.
And our experiences
Beneath the surface we connect, we are
entwined roots within the skin of the earth.
Eyes, ears, straws, heads, hearts, hands.
Nature as Laboratory
Bagved Overfladen is structured as two concentric circles of vertical panels, each populated with living grains and flowers. The roots behind these panels grow together into a dense, interwoven network, transforming the installation into a visible laboratory of life. Moving through the narrow passageways, visitors can observe these fragile roots, normally hidden from view, experiencing the delicate interplay that sustains the growth above. The work is dynamic and responsive to environmental conditions, shaped by care, watering, and seasonal change. The passageway creates intimacy, encouraging visitors to witness both the resilience and vulnerability of natural systems, while engaging in a tactile and contemplative experience.
Philosophy and Artistic Investigation
Bosse’s work emerges from a long-standing exploration of the forces inherent in seeds and the mechanisms of roots, developed through earlier projects like Levity (2014), Network (2017), and In, Around and All In-Between (2017). His approach combines scientific observation with poetic interpretation, reflecting a belief that nature, body, and mind are deeply interconnected. By studying growth, decay, and organic structures, Bosse examines how humans interact with nature, how nature impacts humans, and how life sustains itself.
In Bagved Overfladen, he synthesizes empirical inquiry and visual storytelling into a multi-sensory, evolving artwork. The installation encourages reflection on natural processes, inviting audiences to consider their place within larger ecological systems and to experience the hidden rhythms of life both above and beneath the surface.
