Kunsthuis SYB

This autumn, Kunsthuis SYB presents the second edition of the triennial festival of visual arts: the Triennial of Beetsterzwaag. During the four days of the festival you may choose between viewing art, or live performances, participating in activities, listening to seminars, meeting artists, or just meandering through our historic locations while enjoying fantastic food and drinks in the late summer sun, all within the vicinity of Opsterland’s forested surrounds.

In Almende, the second Triennial of Beetsterzwaag, guest curators Julia Geerlings and Niekolaas Johannes Lekkerkerk connect the theme “iepen mienskip” (open community) with the ancient concept of “almende”. The term “almende” dates back to the dark ages and refers to a jointly owned share held by a community in undeveloped, undivided commons of pastures, forestry and fisheries. Geerlings and Lekkerkerk want to reintroduce the notion of almende and use it to reconsider the notions of shared responsibilities and interests that coincide the shared use of land, landscapes and public space.

In addition to the ethical, moral, and practical issues surrounding almende and the accompanying shared responsibility, Geerlings and Lekkerkerk use a more speculative thinking space open to uninhibited experiments with stories and scenarios on the genesis of humankind and the role of natural processes in the development of civilisation.

The point of origin for these experiments is the Oera Linda, a 19th-century distortion of history in the form of an ancient manuscript of pseudo-runes. The Oera Linda alleges the existence of an Old-Frisian manuscript on the genesis of the world and the development of human civilisation. Mythology, matriarchy, nationalism, and natural disasters form the common thread in the Oera Linda, and again and again they offer new clues, new points of departure, to consider and speculate on the use and organisation of public space.

Guest curators Geerlings and Lekkerkerk selected 29 artists, including 23 Kunsthuis SYB alumni, and 6 new commissions, who will realise 26 projects at various historical locations in the Opsterland area. All of the selected artists work from an understanding and an awareness of the entanglement of nature and culture, and they all concentrate on developing alternative forms of community and society.

Participating artists include (TBC): Isabelle Andriessen, Feiko Beckers, Egle Budvytyte, Madison Bycroft, Joaquin Cociña & Cristóbal León, Deirdre M. Donoghue, Helen Dowling, Wapke Feenstra, Priscilla Fernandes, Toon Fibbe & Laura Wiedijk, Paul Geelen, Eric Giraudet de Boudemange, Ane Graff, Jason Hendrik Hansma, Josje Hattink, Rosie Heinrich, Femke Herregraven, Sjoerd Leijten & Stijn Verhoeff, Eric Peter, Lea Porsager, Anne Marijn Voorhorst, Louwrien Wijers, Riet Wijnen, Müge Yilmaz, and Timmy van Zoelen.

Artists profiles will be introduced on the Triennial website. Almende, the second Triennial of Beetsterzwaag, is part of the LF2018 main programme.