at Dutch Design Week 2024

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.

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.

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.

Reconnecting with the Land

The Soils exhibition shows that reconnecting with the land is essential, encouraging us to see the ground beneath our feet as a source of wisdom and guidance. Here, the earth itself becomes a storyteller, teaching us about resilience, renewal, and respect. It challenges us to see ourselves not as separate from nature but as part of a larger web of life, where re-grounding ourselves means understanding our relationship with the soil and taking responsibility for its care.

The stories in Soils don’t offer quick fixes or simple solutions. They don’t pretend that the harm done over centuries can be undone overnight. Instead, they create a space for us to pause, reflect, and truly listen to the land. The soil is a living record of the past, the present, and what lies ahead. If we can learn to hear its stories, we can begin to shape a new future—one where the earth, and all it sustains, is treated with the care and respect it deserves.

Note: This is an in-depth article about the project exhibited at Dutch Design Week 2024. For more event coverage and additional in-depth articles, visit Plural Magazine's Instagram, where the content will be saved in the Instagram Stories.

Group exhibition Soils

On view from 15 June to 24 November 2024 at the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven

Participating artists and collectives

Artists, activists and thinkers participating in Soils: Valiana Aguilar, patricia kaersenhout & Rolando Vázquez, Soph Boobyer, The Committee for Resurrection (Adelina Luft, Ovidiu Tichindeleanu, Raluca Voinea), Peta Clancy, Megan Cope, Zena Cumpston, Wapke Feenstra, Steffie de Gaetano & Giulia Pompilj, Lian Gogali and Institut Mosintuwu, D Harding, Diewke van den Heuvel, Jatiwangi art Factory, Moelyono, Suumil Móokt'aan, Hira Nabi, Tom Nicholson, Yurni Sadariah, Dorieke Schreurs, Keg de Souza, Brooke Wandin, Pluriversity Weavers (Ana Bravo Pérez, Li Yuchen, Aldo Ramos, Aliki van der Kruijs).

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.

Partners

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

Photography

Nick Bookelaar

Almicheal Fraay

Nina Zulian

Words

Nina Zulian