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L A N D A N D A RT
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For the fifth time the bkkc (brabants kenniscentrum kunst en cultuur, or ‘knowledge centre for arts and culture’ (a provincial support-organisation) is working together with Euro Land Art, the regional council of Het Groene Woud (the Green Forest) and De Meierij (the Bailiwick). Curators Margriet Kemper (ELA Artistic Director) and Erik Luermans (bkkc) chose ‘The Meeting’ as the principal theme for 2011: a meeting between town and country, between artwork and location, and between the artworks, residents and users of Het Groene Woud, similar to how these points of departure were also articulated last year in the Landkunstmanifest (from Euro Land Art). Guided by this principle, the organisers made their artist selections. Designers, installation artists, a video artist, writers and photographers they all received a commission grounded in this context. The desire to produce this magazine grew out of a longing to submit the ‘meeting in Het Groene Woud’ theme to authors that have already demonstrated their expertise and love for the landscape on a national stage. In the work of artist Thomas Stricker (CH), there are many apparent points of departure. He focuses on the meaning of the landscape in our Western world and on the cycle of growth and decay that characterizes nature’s passing. The essential idea of Stricker’s proposal titled Agrarstatistiche Felder - agrarian statistics in the landscape - is about representing the interdependence of food, energy, and ecology. For this, Stricker used analytical data (presented scientifically in statistics, diagrams or other data) to create a kind of visual language that formed the basis for his ideas. In mid-July, Stricker realised his first artwork in a spelt grainfield in
Liempde. Stricker’s work depicted the percentile distribution of the world grain production in 2011 for food, feed and bioethanol, the development of world grain cultivation for biofuel, and the world grain prices from 2006 through 2011. The statement is clear; the work as well, which was made visible with flattened harvest field lines that formed a large square with randomly-placed lines and levelled areas in the interior. It contrasts strongly with other natural and artificial lines and boundaries in the surrounding farmlands. The resultant artwork will claim its own meaning later from the ‘catalog’ of other realised works. In September, a second and third artwork will follow in De Vleut by the town of Best. The occasion for Mieke Prinse’s talk with Henk Wiersma, who lives alongside the Dommel creek in Sint-Oedenrode, was the fact that Wiersma, for the fifth consecutive time, would be hosting an artwork commissioned by Landkunst; most recently for 2011. Wiersma is a contemporary agricultural entrepeneur par excellence: his farm offers accomodation for a senior day centre, after school care and a yoga centre. He is struck by the fact that the art weeks are generally well received, although there are sometimes misunderstandings and criticism. However, the work from this year, a platform by Elmo Vermijs, actually offers something to the people from the neighbourhood, to passing cyclists and to people out taking a stroll which is the reason why Wiersma does it. Landkunst has meaning for him in this sense, and he is always curious about the following edition of it. Artist and writer Sjaak Langenberg was in residence in Norway while writ-
ing his contribution, from a landscape that is more or less comparable with Het Groene Woud. Just like Gerbrand Bakker, Langenberg observes that the touristic and economical motivations exploit the meaning of the landscape from Het Groene Woud, and can have an unnecessary or in any case, a damaging effect. The unique becomes needlessly simplified. He pleads for artists to have a clear position in the process of change that the landscape is now undergoing or has to undergo. An artist can lay a finger on the pulse and provide a surprising analysis. Artist Bram Braam was commissioned to design and create a meeting place for a specific location that would be informed by the realities of the area. Many of his works use the tension between culture and nature as a point of departure. Braam chose a location by the historic Landgoed Velder (Velder Estate). The artwork Occupied Spaces was constructed out of three parts in a spot encircled by dense bushes. These works are of different sizes, built up out of orthogonal structures and are made with thin slats that create a delicate framework. The structural formation seeks contrast with the natural surroundings. The viewer can also enter the artwork. Braam convincingly binds geometry to nature, connecting these two very old aesthetic forces. The landscape of Het Groene Woud is rich in diversity. Although it does not always have the romantic landscape that everyone would like to see, it still contains a great number of beautiful places. The arboriculture, for example, though long an important industry, has grown rapidly and is of great economic importance, but it places increasing demands on the land of Het Groene Woud, which is still a pro-