Soils

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. With contributions from: The Experimental Station for Research on Art and Life, Anonymous artist (Transylvania, 19th century), Adelina Ivan, Anang Saptoto, Eduard Constantin, Livia Pancu), 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.

Graafdier by Nikki Dekker

Like the artists in the Soils exhibition, writer Nikki Dekker went in search of our relationship to the land and soil we are rooted in. At the invitation of the Van Abbemuseum, literary production house Tilt and the Cultuurfonds, she spent three weeks in De Groote Peel. This resulted in her second novel Graafdier. An investigation, a journey through time and a do-book for anyone curious about the world around them.

Publication

The publication accompanying the exhibition is a richly illustrated reflection on the exhibition Soils. Five years were spent working on this special exhibition and the book guides you through the different stages of its realisation. Besides images, there are texts by the three curators, a conversation on soil and decoloniality with Rolando Vazquez and artist texts by Zena Cumpston and Wapke Feenstra/Inez Dekker. It was designed by David Bennewith and Sandra Kassenaar, who also designed the exhibition at the museum. Buy the book in our webshop or in the museum shop.

Partners

Soils is a curatorial collaboration between the TarraWarra Museum of Art, Struggles for Sovereignty and the Van Abbemuseum.

In collaboration with:

Made possible thanks to the following funding partners:

^{Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are however those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them.}^{This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.}

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