Soils: An Exhibition at the Van Abbemuseum
at Dutch Design Week 2024
Overview Soils, 2024 Central Textile: ‘The Matter We Share’ - Steffie de Gaetano and Giulia Pompilj | Photography: Nick Bookelaar
Picture yourself standing barefoot on the cool, damp earth. You can feel its texture beneath your feet, grounding you in the present moment. As your toes sink into the uneven surface, it's as though the soil comes alive, whispering stories of growth, decay, and renewal—life unfolding over centuries. The ground beneath us is not just a surface to walk on; it's where life begins, thrives, and returns. It holds the memories of those who came before and offers hope for those who will follow, connecting past, present, and future in an unbroken cycle.
Inspired by the ideas of Palestinian thinker Munir Fasheh, the Soils exhibition explores four types of soil that shape our world: earth soil, cultural soil, communal soil, and spiritual soil. These are more than just the ground we see; they represent the cultural roots, social bonds, and spiritual layers that shape our lives. The exhibition invites us to consider how our history, traditions, and beliefs tie us to the land in different ways, revealing the depth of our connection.
Build-up Soils, 2024 | Photography: Nick Bookelaar
How can we re-ground ourselves in our environment? And how does that help us reconnect with each other? The relationship between humans and the land has grown increasingly strained, marked by overuse, pollution, erosion, land grabbing, and labor exploitation. The Soils exhibition addresses these questions, bringing together artists, designers, farmers, and activists from around the world. Their works encourage us to cultivate a deeper empathy for the soils that nourish us and form the foundation of life.
The exhibition takes us on a journey across landscapes—from the Wurundjeri lands in Australia to the sacred Chundwa (‘Heart of the World’) of the Iku people in Colombia, from the Rangan Paser Adat territories in Indonesia to Sinanché in Mayan Yucatán, and even to the soils of Eindhoven in the Netherlands. In these places, soil is more than just dirt; it is a keeper of stories, connecting people and time, holding the threads of our shared journey.
Build-up Soils, 2024 | Photography: Nick Bookelaar
Exhibition Soils, 2024 Permeance - Steffie de Gaetano | Photography: Nick Bookelaar
‘Van Abbe Museum - Exhibition ‘soils’ - opening day 2 - The Matter We Share’ - Steffie de Gaetano and Giulia Pompilj | Photography: Almicheal Fraay
Exploring Pollution and Land Through Art
Among the featured works are projects that directly confront the impact of environmental contamination on local landscapes. In The Matter We Share, artists Steffie de Gaetano and Giulia Pompilj, developed as part of the dieDAS fellowship and covered in a previous article, explore the intersection of plants, pigments, and pollution, using the river Dommel’s soil and vegetation as the medium. As the river passes through Eindhoven, merging with the Tongelreep and the Kleine Dommel, it carries industrial waste that has accumulated over generations. The artists use chromatographic exposure—a technique where chemicals absorbed into a canvas reveal the history of heavy metal contamination—to create a vivid, patterned map of the river. The resulting work connects the polluted river with broader histories of land exploitation and resource extraction worldwide, reminding us of the interconnected nature of environmental crises.
In a similar vein, Permeance by Steffie de Gaetano delves into the contamination at the Belgian-Dutch border of the river Dommel, where over 125 years of heavy metal-laden wastewater have seeped into the groundwater and surrounding ecosystem. Despite efforts to scrape and clean the riverbed, high levels of zinc and cadmium continue to endanger both aquatic and land-dwelling life. The artwork uses soil chromatography, a form of non-representational photography, to bring the chemical compositions of the polluted soil to light. Samples taken from the riverbed are transformed into circular chromatographies, revealing the contaminants through colorful patterns that emerge as the elements react with light. This process, blending science with art, goes beyond traditional photography to create a “beyond-human” representation that incorporates the agency of the earth itself. The paper is not just an image of the contaminated soil; it embodies the polluted landscape of the Campine region.
Exhibition Soils, 'Permeance' materializes through the medium of soil chromatographies - Steffie de Gaetano - 2024 | Photography: Nina Zulian