Ceramic
200 x 113 x 105 cm
Large ceramic instrument of relation. Based on biodiversity awareness, focusing on the interrelationship and interdependence between humans and trees. It is an ergonomic device that invites visitors to sit inside. Built in one piece, it acts as an extension of the human body, resonating and amplifying the sensory experience of being with trees and their environment.
Here you can see photos of the sculpture at Belmonte Arboretum in Wageningen in the Netherlands. During summer 2024 it was part of the open-air exhibition HEKSENKRUID: Decolonize Botany , curated by Mirjam Westen.
CONGRESS ROOM: Way of Being Ecocratic (2024)
Inspired by the proposal for a new constitution in Chile, and following its rejection, this is a first step towards recognizing and acknowledging different ways of relating to ecocratic laws. Laws that consider trees as sentient beings with the same rights as human beings.
This ceramic work is built in one piece using clay rollers, a deeply rooted approach to working with clay in South Abya Yala (South America). Where sculptures are built structurally hollow as vessels. The same methodology that allowed me to achieve resonance within the piece.
In the upper part there is a large chamber that resonates with the sounds of the park such as birds, insects, and weather conditions such as wind and rain. Hidden inside the structure are handmade ceramic megaphones whose tubes appear at different heights so that visitors of different heights can sit and listen to the amplified sounds from the outside environment.
What motivates me most about presenting this work is to create an experience of connection and recognition with nature in a simple and strong way. It is about recognising the consciousness that inhabits each tree, which for me is an innate, amazing ability that comes from sensory experience rather than cognitive understanding.
This work was made during the artistic residency at the European Ceramic Work Center EKWC. Oisterwijk, the Netherlands.
Time lapse: Building up.
Photos of building, painting and firing.
'A sculpture in an arboretum, corresponding with the chestnut and the walnut trees, chatting with the sun, the rain and the wind, with the birds, the squirrels, listening, shivering, whispering the chance encounters with leaves and branches. It’s a very physical object, essentially human, a body of bodies, skin, hints of limbs, bellies and backs and faces, fading into the walls or coming to the fore, eyes and ears, channels between outside and inside. The quiet, secluded space, open and closed, gives the odd sensation of shutting out the world to better let it in – the mediating ceramic trunk, cave, hideaway, sheltering and welcoming all life. Perhaps with time, mosses or moulds will adorn the throne, algae and other organisms might grow on the work’s surface, inviting it to blend in, creature among creatures, and yet remain this puzzling, pensive visitor making itself at home'.
Text by Nanne op ’t Ende for EKWC.
Supported by:
Currently the CONGRESS ROOM. Way of Being Ecocratic is deffinitly part of the public space in the south-east of Amsterdam.
Beautifully located in front of the main entrance of the brutalist building and former hospital Het Slotervaart, which is now being restored to become a community health centre.
Everyone is welcome to visit :)
Louwesweg 6, 1066 EC Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Full gratitude, especially to Anne van der Zwaag for making this possible, EKWC work in residence ceramic centre and Frank Hietbrink for safe and heavy moving and placing.
Bibliography | Reviews
Margreet Feenstra, Article Klei magazine , January 2025
Ervaar de resonantie van de natuur... Go to article