What if | the future of the northern landscape
At the beginning of this year, SIGN and Noorderlicht launched the research project 'What If' out of a shared interest in the development of the northern landscape. Artists Linde Ex and Aebele Trijsburg have spent the past few months dealing with the question: what will the future northern landscape look like? Initially they started the research process together. Along the way, Linde and Aebele veered into two independent directions, the results of which are presented together.
Linde Ex assumes a future scenario in which the dikes disappear, and people start living with the tides. She is particularly interested in shifting the perspective: what if we take the measure of benthic life – small creatures living on the seabed – as just as self-evident as the human measure? For example, Linde made scale models of a radial mound – based on historical research – and placed them on the tide line in four locations along the coast of Friesland and Groningen. Once there, seabed life, silt and seawater influence the models, whereby the design of the landscape is magnified by the sea. The observations of the models, influenced by the mud flats, form the starting point for the creation of a futuristic scenario and new work for the final presentation.
Aebele Trijsburg focuses on the human factor in the formation of the landscape. According to him, the fight against water is illustrative for the myths that the Netherlands was created by us, that we control the water and that, without our interventions, the country would be half-drowned. Aebele believes that this image needs to be reformed. The cause of rising sea levels lies primarily with human beings themselves, who have turned the land into a kind of bathtub by way of cultivation. In order to invest in smart solutions in the long term, we need to change our thinking, for example by allowing the Netherlands’ soil to grow with the water level and by strengthening natural barriers. With his work for ‘What If’, Aebele hopes to make people aware of the need for this cultural change.
Linde Ex
Linde Ex (Nijmegen, 1983) is interested in the traces of non-human worlds that are often ignored or overlooked. She works from a broad research perspective and enjoys collaborating with artists from other disciplines as well as scientists, which encourages her to look at things from different angles. This way, she produced videos, installations, drawings and books. Material research is also an important way of approaching a subject in her work. Linde Ex graduated from the Frank Mohr Institute in Groningen in 2018, with the master’s degree MADtech.
Aebele Trijsburg
In the view of Aebele Trijsburg (Barchem, 1991), a constant search for meaning is an essential ingredient for understanding ideas such as truth and goodness. This process produces work that is both narrative and strange at the same time. The narrative character encourages interpretation, the surrealistic side blocks the route to clarity. Aebele Trijsburg creates paintings, objects, sculptures and photographs. He graduated from the Minerva Art Academy in Groningen in 2013.
Artist in Space
This project takes place within the scope of Artist in Space, the talent development programme of the Noordenaars (a platform for presentation institutions and art initiatives in the Northern Netherlands).
