Seeds for (x)change
DE ONKRUIDENIER
September 10 – November 6, 2022

When you look at grasses, you see one of the most common plant species in the Netherlands. When you look even closer, you see that this plant is rooted and intertwined with all kinds of themes in our daily lives: from our food system to the migration of culture, from politics and economy to the climate. With Seeds for (x)change, the second chapter of the project Grassroots, the Onkruidenier reflects on this layering by highlighting grasses in Spangen on a hyperlocal level. Can we see grasses as storytellers of complex (global) food and climate issues? We explore how grasses locally create a different form of exchange and connect us socially from different (grass) perspectives. From lovegrass to wall barley. From determination to wind trading. From tide book to sidewalk culture. Since the summer of 2021, de Onkruidenier has rooted in Spangen to learn from different grassroots and grassroots initiatives. With Grassroots, de Onkruidenier unfolds a (social) ecosystem centered around (ex)change. Join this exchange in which we interweave the local landscape of Spangen with themes around grasses. This will happen in a public program, through the exhibition and with an interactive sculpture.

De Onkruidenier was established in 2013 and the current team members are Jonmar van Vlijmen, Rosanne van Wijk and Ronald Boer. They like to call themselves ecosystem futurists using speculative tools to explore various forms of entanglement with our living environment. With their practice they reveal possible interpretations on the changing relationship between human and nature. Their proposition is that we ourselves can adapt to our environment not only from a technological point of view, but also physically and biologically. Instead of constructing the landscape towards our own human needs, how can we learn to adapt in a changing landscape? Using various artistic and interactive methods, the collective creates playful and eco-hopeful work. Currently the work of the collective can be seen at: — group exhibition Chapter 5ive, The Countryside at Het HEM in Zaandam. The collective was recently selected for an artist in residency at the Royal Netherlands Institute in Rome (KNIR) that will start upcoming autumn.