birrarung ba brungergalk, Soils, Van Abbemuseum, The Netherlands
Group exhibition Soils explores a renewed connection with our soil
Soils are the foundation of our lives. It is where our ancestors once lived and where future generations will build an existence. It is the link between past, present and future. The source that feeds us. But the relationship between human and earth is also often strained. From land depletion and overproduction to land grabbing and (labour) exploitation. How can we re-ground ourselves in our environment? And how does that help us reconnect with each other? The group exhibition Soils addresses these questions. International artists, designers, farmers and activists work towards more empathy for our soils.
Mankind and soil
Soils focuses on the human relationship with soils. A relationship that is often complicated, as nation-states we know as Australia, Colombia, Indonesia, Mexico and the Netherlands show. For the artists, these names are less relevant. Rather, they seek expression based on kinship and grounded knowledge, as is done by the Wurundjeri land, the Iku peoples' guarded Chundwa (Heart of the World), the Rangan Paser Adat territories, Sinanché in Mayan Yucatán and Eindhoven in North Brabant.
Local, national and international
In Soils, makers teach us how important it is to ground our thinking and actions in the soil we live on. Local, national and international artists dig beneath the surface. Using ancestral knowledge and tangible traces of other ways of thinking, they create a web of relationships. From Diewke van den Heuvel’s photographic work of the melting Alpine glacier to Wapke Feenstra’s visualisation of the changing appearance of the cow. From the Maya house as an ambassy for the Mayan culture by Suumil Móokt'aan to the New Rural Agenda Temple by art collective Jatiwangi art Factory.
Participating artists and collectives
Artists, activists and thinkers participating in Soils: Valiana Aguilar, BKP (Badan Kajian Pertanahan), Soph Boobyer, Peta Clancy, Megan Cope, Zena Cumpston, Erfgoed Brabant (Selim Haase, Luke Linssen, Jonathan Tjien Fooh, Cat de Win-Haase), Wapke Feenstra, Steffie de Gaetano and Giulia Pompilj, Lian Gogali and Institut Mosintuwu, D Harding, Diewke van den Heuvel, Jatiwangi art Factory, patricia kaersenhout, Moelyono, Myvillages, Hira Nabi, Tom Nicholson, Pluriversity Weavers (Dwanimako Arroyo Izquierdo, María Eufemia Arroyo Izquierdo, Dwasimney Del Carmen Izquierdo Torres, Seynawiku Izquierdo Torres, Ana Bravo Pérez, Aliki van der Kruijs, LI Yuchen, Aldo Ramos), Riar Rizaldi, Yurni Sadariah and the Sekolah Adat members and Rangan Adat communities, Dorieke Scheurs, Keg de Souza, Suumil Móokt'aan (Valiana Aguilar, Ángel Kú), The Resurrection Committee (Adelina Luft, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, Raluca Voinea), Rolando Vázquez, Brooke Wandin.
The first edition of Soils opened in 2023 at TarraWarra Museum of Art in Australia. After Eindhoven, the project will continue onwards to Jogjakarta in 2025.