De Proef

Horticultural traditions and technocultivation

The grounds of De Proef in the UNESCO village of Frederiksoord span eight hectares and were established in 1884 as the Netherlands’ first horticultural school. Today, it functions as a working landscape and living archive, where over 500 species of shrubs and trees coexist with contemporary practices at the intersection of food, ecology, and culture. 

At De Proef an exhibition unfolds that reveals new relationships between humans, machines, and the landscape. The artists at this location explore how technological systems not only intervene in the world around us, but also become part of living processes: from the growth of a plant to the memory of a landscape, from a cow’s breath to the ripening of a tomato.

Some works show how precisely technology tracks or imitates natural cycles. Others uncover how seemingly neutral innovations—like artificial fertilizer or sensor data—are entangled in complex relationships of political power and ecological exhaustion. In this context, agriculture, once the domain of human labour and seasonal rhythm, takes on new meaning. What if plants push back against human interventions in nature? What if the animal speaks, the algorithm listens, and the landscape responds?

Amid digital ecosystems, data-driven care, and virtual plant worlds, a speculative yet tangible vision of agriculture emerges—as a network of relationships. Not just between humans and nature, but between memory and progress, between control and collaboration. Here we ask: how can we cultivate a future that honours the multiple perspectives present in our shared environment?

This part of Machine Entanglements is a coproduction of Noorderlicht & De Proef.

Featuring works by: affect lab, Crystal Bennes, Ioana Cirlig, Umberto Diecinove, Diana Gheorghiu, Heleen Haijtema, Susanne Kriemann, Michael Najjar, Špela Petrič, Polymorf, Livia Ribichini, Nina van Tuikwerd, Henk Wildschut, Lorenzo Zerbini

De Proef – Frederiksoord, Drenthe
Majoor van Swietenlaan 15, 8382 CE Frederiksoord
 

Open: 10:00–17:00 (closed on Mondays)
Entry fee: €7,50 · students €4,50 ·   Museumcard not valid

Follow signs from Majoor van Swietenlaan; the entrance is on the garden side. Take bus 20 or 15 from Steenwijk Station to the Frederiksoord stop; then a 10-minute walk.