Shadow Garden
In the coming years, in collaboration with Zone2Source, we will develop the former cloister garden of the Belgian pavilion into the SchaduwTuin (Shadow Garden), an artist’s garden in which stories are housed that make entanglements of nature and man visible and tangible.
Shadow is where the light does not shine on it. What processes take place while we cannot see them? In the Shadow Garden, we as humans literally move into the shadows of plants, organisms, soil and earth systems. We delve into twilight, shadow, fog and the grey area of hidden knowledge that we bring to light. How can a garden be a place where people can reshape their connection to their environment?
With the Shadow Garden, de Onkruidenier is developing a test environment for a new relationship between humans and their future habitat. De Onkruidenier reverses the perspective: we leave behind traditional expectations of gardens and gardening. What attitude do we adopt as we learn to listen to plants and all the more-than-human organisms? What stories do they tell, what instructions do they give, what can we all learn? Through rituals, we develop a new language to take you into an in-between space where current issues of drought and heat and the shifting climate zone find a new order. Reflect with us on our relationship with (urban) nature. Every Wednesday morning the collective is present in the garden, when the weather allows us to. Here we weekly explore the relationships we maintain with this place. Through reflections, conversations, observations and our hands, we open our senses to the garden in new ways. Want to stop by or participate? If so, send us a message and we’d love to welcome you to meet the Shadow Garden.
Under the Free Space scheme of the City of Amsterdam, the walled Belgian Monastery Garden has been made available for the development of the Shadow Garden.