“I believe that artistic vision, image, and metaphor are powerful tools of communication that can become expressions of human values with profound impact on our consciousness and collective destiny. My work straddles individual creation and social consciousness. It addresses the challenges of global survival and is often monumental in scale. I plant forests on abused land to be kept alive for centuries and fields of grain in the heart of cities.This work goes beyond just planting a field or a forest, or creating a master plan for large spaces. It is benign problem-solving and shaping, structuring the future: an egoless art form that calls attention to social concerns and involves people from all walks of life. It builds pride and self esteem in people and benefits future generations with a meaningful legacy. In addition to my environmental projects I also create murals, installations, indoor and outdoor sculpture. My materials are etched or stained glass or stone, metal, fiber optics, lighting, water and landscaping. I feel comfortable designing vast spaces as well as working on miute scale and with intricate detail, and enjoy working in close collaboration with architects, scientists and a variety of other professionals.My desire to overcome my limited abilities as a human being, didn’t interfere from appreciating those abilities I have already been given. I am a child of my neighborhood, but my neighborhood is the universe.” - Agnes Denes

Agnes Denes is an iconic feminist artist who redefined art as a form of urban ecological intervention. Her most well-known work, Wheatfield - A Confrontation (1982), consisted of two acres of wheat planted on a landfill in Manhattan near Wall Street in NYC.

Her new commission, Sunflower Fields, appears each year in a different district of Hamburg. It began last year at Stadtpark and arrives this summer at Hammaburg-Platz. The project is conceived as an act of regeneration without gentrification - a proposal for a planetary, sustainable public artwork that produces more oxygen than it consumes, a refuge where we meet with and despite our differences. In the artist's words: "We can all see the reality and still be able to dream."

Originally realised at the Autostrada Biennale in Kosovo (2021-2023), in Hamburg, it is cared for by artist-gardener Stephanie Jacobs. Curated by City Curator Joanna Warsza as a satellite initiative of the exhibition FIRE. From the Cosmos to the Commons at the St. Nikolai Memorial.


Agnes Denes was born in 1931 in Budapest and lives in New York City.


The project is being developed in close collaboration/partnership with the Authority for Urban Development and Housing (BSW), the Authority for Environment, Climate, Energy and Agriculture (BUKEA), Ministry of Culture and Media Hamburg (BKM), the St. Petri Parish, BürgerStiftung, Claussen-Simon Foundation, Consulate General of the Republic of Kosovo, Autostrada Biennale and residents of Hammaburg-Platz.