De Onkruidenier - Forever Summer
De Onkruidenier Forever Summer
DE ONKRUIDENIER
Under the name De Onkruidenier, the Dutch artist collective, consisting of Jonmar van Vlijmen (1980, Doetinchem), Ronald Boer (1981, Giessenburg), and Rosanne van Wijk (1994, Woerden), explores the relationship between man and nature in an artistic way. In Forever Summer the tomato plays the lead role.
The project started in the spring of 2020 with the distribution of tomato plants to about 50 professional and non-professional growers in Eindhoven. Since then, tomato plants in all kinds of colours and shapes have been growing in and on Eindhoven (vegetable)gardens and balconies.
FROM TOMATO GREENHOUSE TO MUSEUM DEPOT
De Onkruidenier conducts research into the relationship between the museum climate and the climate in which tomatoes thrive best during cultivation and conservation. In the outside space of the Van Abbemuseum (het Oog) and the adjacent platform, a spatial installation exhibits the research and its results. A video work connects the world of the museum with a commercial tomato greenhouse and an Eindhoven initiative that grows food for the food bank.
GROWERS
This project would not have been possible without the efforts of all hobby growers in and around Eindhoven. Their harvest, which De Onkruidenier carefully preserved, resulted in about 350 new tomato plants that are grown in the museum, among other places.
