We’ve scoured the globe for the most exciting, surprising and compelling outdoor art installations

Valie Export, Die Doppelgängerin, installation view at Muzeum Susch. Photography: Claudio von Planta

There’s something majestic about outdoor art. Against landscapes, cityscapes or seascapes, sculpture can take on an entirely new life. Al fresco, art is at its most accessible. It is used to commemorate, celebrate, shock, invite engagement and define the outdoor space it occupies.Read our guide to the best outdoor art installations to stumble upon, or seek out.

Valie Export, Die Doppelgängerin, installation view at Muzeum Susch. Photography: Claudio von PlantaArtist: Valie ExportLocation: Engadin Valley, SwitzerlandSet against the bucolic, mountainous wonderland of the Engadin valley is Die Doppelgängerin, a colossal sculpture by Austrian filmmaker, media and performance artist Valie Export. The piece – now on permanent display at Muzeum Susch – comprises a pair of double scissors: sinister in its spearing of the ground, and opulent in its gilded majesty. Die Doppelgängerin is reminiscent of Claes Oldenburg’s gigantic public interventions, or Duchamp’s reframing of everyday commercial objects. But Valie Export has transformed the domestic object into an icon of feminist art: the ‘doubled’ motif occurs frequently in the female avant-garde, symbolising a fragmented female identity in the face of often violent social attributions to gender roles.

Eva Rothschild, Living Spring, River Lea at Bow Locks, The Line. Photography: Megan PiperArtist: Eva RothschildLocation: London, UK On the banks of the River Lea at Bow Creek, Eva Rothschild’s Living Spring is turning heads. The new sculpture unveiled on The Line, London’s first dedicated public art walk – is formed of slender steel tubes, boldly painted black, red and green in Rothschild’s autograph stripe motif and ‘Magic Minimalism’. The artist – who spoke to us ahead of her Venice Biennale pavilion in 2019 – offers a deceptively simple, branch-like counterpoint to the surrounding post-industrial landscape. ‘Striping forms are something I have used throughout my practice…it segments a continuous form, interrupts how we look at it and keeps us looking a bit longer; an interaction with an object which occurs when we look at art,’ she says.

Makoto Tojiki, Solidarity and Collaboration (2021), created for the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games © 2021 / IOC / Yuichi Yamazaki

genuinefake, FORTUNE HERE (for Urban Room Folkestone), Commissioned for Creative Folkestone Triennial 2021. Photography: Thierry BalEvent: Folkestone TriennialLocation: Folkestone, UKWith summer in full swing, ‘tis the season for coastal escapes, particularly those in the name of art. The fifth Folkestone Triennial has unveiled 20 newly commissioned outdoor public artworks across Folkestone’s scenic coastal setting, by artists including Assemble, Rana Begum, Gilbert & George, Atta Kwami, Pilar Quinteros, and Richard Deacon. Free to the public, the Triennial marks one of the UK’s most ambitious art exhibitions. Following its run, some works will remain as permanent additions to Creative Folkestone Artworks, which currently features 74 artworks located across the town and harbour. creativefolkestone.org.ukWriter: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

Sarah Sze, Fallen Sky, 2021. Storm King Art Center, Mountainville, NY. © Sarah Sze. Photography by Nick Knight, courtesy of Sarah Sze StudioArtist: Sarah SzeLocation: Storm King Art Center, New YorkAmerican artist Sarah Sze’s permanent site-specific commission for Storm King Art Center is an exercise in reflection. Fallen Sky comprises a 36-foot-diameter spherical cavity that seems to erupt from the earth – its mirrored stainless-steel surface trapping images of its environment. Alongside the sculpture, a solo show by Sze – including site-specific installation – will take place in Storm King’s Museum Building until November 8, 2021. Fallen Sky joins a series of site-specific commissions for the sculpture park’s permanent collection, including works by Maya Lin, Andy Goldsworthy, Isamu Noguchi, and Richard Serra, among others. stormking.orgWriter: Harriet Lloyd-Smith

Artist: Gio Tirotto; Curator: Maria Cristina DideroLocation: Water Square, Tiberius Bridge, Rimini, ItalyIn the Italian city of Rimini, around the stone arches of the historic Tiberus bridge, artist Gio Tirotto and curator Maria Cristina Didero have installed 208 custom-made buoys, each with a solar power LED light. 208 is the number of nations in the world, including semi-recognised or unrecognised states, and so the 208 illuminated buoys, which gently bob up and down with the tide, allude to the ways in which ostensibly separate entities are similarly affected by the same events. The installation is ‘a powerful metaphor for the state of extreme fragility in which we have been living in recent times’, explain Tirotto and Didero. Their enduring glow is also a symbol of resilience, a reminder after a turbulent year that humanity will endure and prosper as long as there is mutual cooperation. 208, at the Water Square near Tiberius Bridge, Rimini, until end of January 2021.Writer: TF Chan

Photography: Kris TamburelloArtist: GT2PLocation: Miami Design District, USAAt the heart of GT2P’s installation for the Miami Design District, titled Conscious Actions, is the idea that every action has an impact on our environment and our communities. The Chilean design studio created a series of architectural, playground-inspired devices that respond to use with shadows, movement and changing surfaces. A particular highlight is this swing set with a pair of articulated fins at its top that undulate as the rider swings to and fro. Poetic, inviting and irresistibly fun, the installation points to a new path for GT2P, who hope to create more interactive public art projects in future. Conscious Actions, in Miami Design DistrictWriter: TF Chan

Artist: Marinella SenatoreLocation: Palazzo Strozzi, Florence, ItalyReflecting on ideas of community and participation, Marinella Senatore’s psychedelic intervention in Palazzo Strozzi’s open-air courtyard holds a timely and uplifting sentiment. The Italian artist’s installation We Rise by Lifting Others, is a vivid light installation that draws on the popular southern Italian luminaria or ‘artist’s lighting’ tradition. Comprising hundreds of LED lights, the ten-metre-high installation becomes the monumental heart of the palazzo’s Renaissance courtyard. As in much of Senatore’s work, words play a key role: within the composition are three phrases inspired by poetic musings on emancipation and participation: ‘The world community feels good’, ‘Breathe, you are enough’ and ‘We rise by lifting others’. As the artist reflects, ‘I see my works as flowing vessels designed in harmony with the specific environment in which they unfold and based on the potentially infinite inclusion of the elements involved.’ We rise by lifting others, at Palazzo Strozzi until 7 February 2021. Writer: Harriet Lloyd-SmithInstallation view of We Rise by Lifting Others, by Marinella Senatore in the Palazzo Strozzi Courtyard. Photography: OKNOstudio

Artist: Lawrence WeinerLocation: The Jewish Museum, New York, USLawrence Weiner’s All The Stars In The Sky Have The Same Face (2011/20) is a striking two-storey mural that spans the Jewish Museum’s Fifth Avenue-facing façade. For this temporary commission – which has been in the works for three years – Weiner drew upon an old Yiddish phrase he heard while growing up, ‘Ale Yevanim habn eyn punim,’ meaning all Greeks (i.e., all non-Jews) have the same face. As a commentary on the poignant history of Jewish self-isolation in response to anti-Semitism, the artist reconceived the sentence to read ‘all the stars in the sky have the same face’ – which he then translated into Hebrew, Arabic and English. Characteristically text-based and fundamentally social in statement, Weiner’s message is one of unity, hope, and an urgent plea to fight global social injustices. All The Stars In The Sky Have The Same Face will be installed until February 2021. thejewishmuseum.orgWriter: Harriet Lloyd-SmithInstallation view of Lawrence Weiner, All The Stars In The Sky Have The Same Face, 2011/2020, The Jewish Museum, NY. Photography: Liz Ligon. Artwork © Lawrence Weiner.

Artist: Lothar GötzLocation: Towner Art Gallery, Eastbourne, UKMarking Towner Art Gallery’s 10th anniversary, German artist Lothar Götz has given the Eastbourne institution a Technicolor treatment in the form of a vivid geometric mural on its façade. Incorporating the gallery’s unique exterior recesses and alcoves, Götz’s mural – his largest to date – wraps the length and width of three sides of the Rick Mather Architects-designed building with paint supplied by local company Brewers Decorator Centres. The commission, which coincides with the launch of the £54m redevelopment of Eastbourne’s Devonshire Quarter, will be in situ for one year.Until June 2020, Towner Art Gallery. townereastbourne.org.uk. Photography: Jim Stephenson. Courtesy of Towner Art Gallery

Artist: Joana VasconcelosLocation: Jupiter Artland, Wilkieston, ScotlandDive into Joana Vasconcelos’ dazzling – and fully functional – swimming pool at Jupiter Artland on the outskirts of Edinburgh, where a former livestock space has been transformed into an immersive installation. Vasconcelos has incorporated patterns from her own astrological chart into the design of the artwork, which comprises 11,366 hand-painted and glazed tiles crafted using traditional methods at a 100-year-old factory in the artist’s native Portugal. With Gateway, the artist invites visitors ‘to immerse in a joyful and spirited dimension, leading to a connection with the energy of the earth’. Vasconcelos muses, ‘It’s like a threshold to another universe that we’re not conscious of but through which we can flow.’ Between 29 July – 22 August, guests will be able to take a dip in Gateway and experience the sculpture park’s latest permanent commission from a new angle.Gateway, until 29 September, Jupiter Artland. jupiterartland.org. Photography: Allan Pollok-Morris. Courtesy of Jupiter Artland

Exhibition: The High LineLocation: New York, USAThe mid-19th century tradition of en plein air painting is getting a modern makeover in a group exhibition of new commissions by Daniel Buren, Sam Falls, Ei Arakwa, Lubaina Himid, Lara Schnitger, Vivian Suter and Ryan Sullivan. Spanning the length of the park, the free-standing works expand on the mid-19th century practice of en plein air painting, not only bringing painting outdoors but harnessing nature as context, subject and collaborator. The works will remain in situ until March 2020. Pictured, 19.604692°N 72.218596°W, 2019, by Firelei Báez.thehighline.org. Photography: Timothy Schenck

Artist: Antony GormleyLocation: Philadelphia Museum of Art, USAA ten-strong ensemble of Antony Gormley’s Blockworks sculptures is holding court outside of the Philadelphia Museum of Art, while it undergoes a renovation by Frank Gehry. ‘Like standing stones, these works are markers in space, but I would also like them to engage the viewer’s time,’ says the artist. ‘Here is sculpture, not statue; less hero or ideal, more material and real: a public declaration of subjective identity.’ The rough cast-iron pillars, placed at regular intervals across the museum’s East Terrace, invites viewers to both project and recognise their own identities in the humanoid stacks of blocks.‘STAND’, until 26 June, Philadelphia Museum of Art. philamuseum.org

Artist: Alicja Biala; architect: Iwo BorkowiczLocation: Bay of Art, Poznań, PolandArtist Alicja Biala and architect Iwo Borkowicz have erected six towering wooden totem poles beneath the MVDVR-design Bałtyk building in Poznań, in a jubilant protest against climate change. The colours and form were diligently made by hand, with help from local woodworkers, students, politicians, activists, and other members of the community, with regular events and workshops throughout the process. Each of the 9m tall totems correlate to different statistics visualising relationship between human and natural forces. The sculptures are stamped with an individual QR code, which after scanning reveals a webpage deconstructing the meaning of its proportions. ‘We wanted to address the public at large, and at an everyday level,’ says Biala. ‘Passersby on the street and tram will catch out of the corner of their eye a flash of strong colours and be reminded of the current state of our world.’totemy.org

Artist: Daniel LibeskindLocation: Paleis Het Loo, Apeldoorn, NetherlandsPolish-American architect Daniel Libeskind is disrupting a 17th-century baroque garden in the Netherlands with a series of monumental sculptures as a protest to climate change. The ‘Garden of Earthly Worries’ consists of four abstract works that create an imbalance within the manicured garden, designed in its time to represent man’s perfection of nature. Each of the 3m tall structures – fragments of a globe – represent different chemical compounds that contribute to our changing climate. ‘We can no longer distinguish if nature is culture, or culture is nature,’ says Libeskind. Read more here.‘The Garden of Earthly Worries’, 2 April – 29 September, Paleis Het Loo. paleishetloo.nl

Artist:  Lea Ceramiche; architect: OMALocation: Prada Foundation, Milan, ItalyThe inauguration of Torre – a monumental white concrete building by Rem Koolhaas with Chris van Duijn and Federico Pompignoli from OMA  – last year marked the completion of the Prada Foundation complex in a former distillery. And while visitors may flock to the six levels of exhibition spaces, it is worth scaling the 60m high tower to the rooftop terrace, where a hypnotic, eye-bending installation awaits. The terrace flooring features an optical illusion in black and white, made using porcelain stoneware tiles from Lea Ceramiche’s Absolute collection. Mirrors at the edge of the terrace remove the visual barrier between the rooftop space and the panoramic vistas of Milan.ceramichelea.it; fondazioneprada.org

Artist: Tauba AuerbachLocation: New York, USANew York-based artist Tauba Auerbach transformed the historic Fireboat John J Harvey into a dazzle ship, putting a contemporary spin on the optical patterns conceived by British painter Norman Wilkinson during the First World War to confuse enemy submarine radars. Auerbach created her design for the surface of the boat through the process of marbling paper, floating inks on a fluid bath and combing the surface to create various wake patterns before transferring them on to paper. The fireboat also flies a flag diagramming ‘flow separation’ — the phenomenon when areas of fluid in a wake move backwards, creating eddies. The work was co-commissioned by New York’s Public Art Fund, and 14-18 NOW, a UK-led arts programme marking the centenary of the First World War.Flow Separation, 1 July 2018 – 12 May 2019, Public Art Fund. publicartfund.org; 1418now.org.uk. Photography: Nicholas Knight. Courtesy of Public Art Fund, NY

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