Plantsoensociologie

Installation with ceramic bowls with trees, Heemtuin Amstelpark, Amsterdam

Ronald Boer and Jonmar van Vlijmen, together the Onkruidenier, have spent the past year researching landscape typologies in the Heemtuin (native garden) of the Amstelpark as part of Exploded View. In search of relationships between plants, people and organisms, they discovered a hayfield where numerous small stubby trees stand between the grass, kept small by the mowing machine but sometimes decades old.

They dug some 40 trees and in the summer of 2020 developed ceramic dishes for the trees in the Orangerie. During a ceremonial parade on November 22, 2020, a few trees on trays were returned to their original location in the Heemtuin. Here they will be cared for by the artists as bonsai’s.

The title Plantsoensociologie refers to the ‘accidental’ nature-culture landscape, for which no vocabulary exists yet. What is the significance of this suppressed forest, can we come up with new concepts for this accidentally created nature-culture landscape and how does this inspire us to tell other stories about the relationship between humans and plants?

Artist | de Onkruidenier Materials |clay and ashwood Production | Overtreders W with the artist  Funding | Stichting Stokroos, AFK

Plantsoensociologie was developed in collaboration with Zone2Source, an international platform for Art, Nature & Technology in the Amstelpark, Amsterdam. In the coming years Zone2Source wants to develop the Amstelpark into a park for art and ecology and a testing ground for the Chtuluceen, in which we practice the intertwining of man and nature. Other works that allow visitors to experience the Amstelpark differently are Floriade Whisperings by KCCM, Buzzbench by AnneMarie van Splunter, Odoshi Cloud Sequence by Ronald van der Meijs, Pit Portal by Karin van Dam, and the soundwalks; Secret Garden by Justin Bennett and Audio Dérives by Esther Hoovers.

View all locations of the outside art works on the Amstelpark art map