Presentation Park Sporen

The presentation of the Park Sporen map, the result of a year of research into the bottom of Amstelpark, takes place on Sunday afternoon, April 17 in the Glass House in Amstelpark.

15 hour excursion registration info@zone2source.net
17 hours presentation Tracks Map with conversation between the artist and Dr. Erik A. de Jong (Artis professor of Culture, Landscape and Nature UvA)

With the Park Sporen art project, visual artist Marjolijn Boterenbrood went underground in Amstel Park and Gijsbrecht van Aemstelpark. She makes a treasure map that unfolds life beneath the surface of the parks and the amazing processes that work there. A thorough and infectious search on different scales. From the connections between the parks and their environment to the interplay of plant roots and soil animals.

We know, strangely enough, more about the universe than what is happening under our feet. A tree takes up just as much space underground as in the visible upper world. Under every step you take, countless worms, springtails, mites, centipedes, bacteria and fungi crawl.

By connecting life above ground with what underlies it, a whole new dimension of park life is opened. The interweaving of the upper and the underworld shows the parks in their entire form and as a process that we can experience with all our senses.

Read about the underground conversion of CO2 into pure carbon, energy from the soil and the importance of fertile humus and oxygen-rich water. Marvel at the communication between roots and fungi and the discovery of new antibiotics from mud.

What happens in the ground under our feet and under the surface of the water? In her blog you can follow Boterenbrood step by step in her process of this search. She dives below the water surface and rooted in the fertile soil. In journeys with scientists from different disciplines, hidden things are literally discovered and held up to the light. Together with children, an alternative infrastructure for the park was created by tracing the path of a piss bed. She organized “humus walks” with residents, a “park dinner” and a “park lunch” with an interdisciplinary group.

In her map it is not only about the green places that form the parks, but also about the (ecological) connections. The green of the two parks connects the Amsterdam forest with the Amstel. The “squirrel bridge” for the increase in squirrels in the area. The water of the Amstel connects with the center of the city.

As a picture of the future, she shows the parks growing and connected. The canopy of the Zuidas and the Amstel connects the parks with the Zorgvlied cemetery, the RAI and the Beatrixpark. The greenery surrounds the city on the A10, as before. The water connects the Amstelscheg from Utrecht to the sea.