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Clear cut (Kaalslag in Dutch) – a project that Wouter Osterholt developed during his participation in the artistic research programme Exploded View (2019 – 2020), in which 10 artists researched new possibilities for the park– utilizes the Amstelpark as a site for an ecological disaster exercise resulting in a film, exhibition and gathering in the Glazen Huis. During the Floriade Expo of 1972, the rise in worldwide environmental awareness was not noticeable. Now, 50 years later, that the impact of humans on the Earth has become an unavoidable fact, Osterholt questions how a park in the urban city can serve as a place for environmental activism.
For two weeks, staged actions – based on former tree protests that have taken place in the Netherlands over the past decades – will be performed with two actors at different locations in the park. The actions are based on real tree protests and will be filmed together with passers-by. The passers-by will also be interviewed who can experience the actions as real. By placing these historical events in the present, visitors will be encouraged to have discussions about the value of trees en parks for city dwellers. The resulting film will be screened at the end of the exhibition and a conversation will be held between the public and activists about the sense and nonsense of resisting the cutting down of trees in The Netherlands, the relationship between humans and trees, and the role of art and activism. The Glazen Huis is the action centre presenting an installation with replicas of banners, flags and posters that hang from a railing system in the space along with a storyboard.
Clear Cut is an experiment for public engagement in the public space that rethinks the city park as a site for environmental activism.
Programma
The film will be shown in the Glazen Huis on 25, 26, 27 March and 1, 2, 3 April from 13.00 – 17.00 hours.
Clear Cut in 2020
In 2020 Wouter Osterholt showed this video as part of the Exploded View exhibition.
Clear Cut is made in collaboration with Bram Gerrits and Gonny Gaakeer (actors), Casper Brink (camera) and Sjoerd Leijten (sound).
The project is made possible by support from the Mondriaan Fund.
