Bekirović’s work is playful, yet based on a clear idea and concept. She herself calls it playful conceptualism. Bekirović’s work explores the possibility that not only people can create a work of art, but also organisms, plants, and animals. She’s interested in the non-human role as an author.

For centuries, humans have drawn inspiration from nature. But does nature also draw inspiration from the human world? In her practice, Semâ Bekirović discovers ways how nature interacts with man-made objects. The moss, the North Sea, oysters, or even fire can transform a man-made object into something extraordinary. Plastic waste turns into a crow’s nest. Green moss can grow on top of a football and a pair of trainers. This way the moss steps into the role of the author.

www.semabekirovic.nl

Tanja Smeets is concerned with organic growth processes. In museums and in public spaces her work enters into an exciting dialogue with the architecture of the surroundings.

The installations often seem frozen in time, in a phase between flowing and dripping, growing and budding. Like parasites, they lay a poetic layer of organic forms over the hard surface.

She works with residual materials left over from industry. But also with materials from everyday life that are used in large quantities and different sizes play an important role in her constructions. This abundance of materials raises questions about our consumption.

The tension that arises between the obvious amount of produced materials in our world on the one hand and the imminent danger of a growing organism on the other, plays an important role in her work.

www.tanjasmeets.nl

Matea shifts her fascination with the transformation of material to material reincarnation. The production of new materials has a significant ecological impact because it demands a lot from the soil. She is exploring ways to revalue material while including its history in the artwork.

Sometimes she allows geometric forms linked to a material to collapse, as it were. In its collapsed form a seemingly weighty lifeless sculpture can evoke empathy in the viewer.

Geometric forms are the foundation of Matea’s works, as they demarcate territory. The organic appearance of the (re)used materials stands out creating a clear contrast with the geometric shapes.

Her house is full of plants; no less than eighty ‘housemates’. Because she has propagated almost all the plants herself, she witnesses the growth process from the very beginning. She sees how a new leaf unfurls, as the outlines are more distinct on the newly emerged leaves. And she witnesses the old dying leaves gradually change color and texture.

‘Plants, too, create geometric shapes that eventually turn into organic forms. A young leaf of my Ten Commandments plant is rolled up so tightly that it creates a tube shape and only then unfolds. The young Monstera Delicosia creates almost perfect circles from newly developed holes in the leaf. Then, as they grow larger, more organic forms emerge. When are these forms, aesthetically speaking, the most exciting? I ask myself.’

www.mateabakula.com
www.aletterfromafreeman.nl

In the work of Menno Hiele natural, but normally invisible processes of plants become visible. Sometimes he uses them to bring everyday objects back to life, as in the case of a wooden bench that fans out into a tree. Armed with the technology of sensors and motors, he allows his work to grow and flourish.

In Steck you can see an image that arose from an ingenious work process. On the computer Menno processes photos of tree bark into a 3d model. Then he digitally adjusts the height and depth. He then divides the resulting structure into digital slices. After milling them into material, he finally reassembles the whole.

www.mennohiele.nl

For UtrechtDownUnder she went to Utrecht Overvecht and worked intensively with a few residents. She interviewed them about the plants with which they have a special bond. Plants that have been with them for a very long time.

In a small greenhouse at Steck the plants ‘stay’ during the exhibition. From an easy chair you can listen to a soundscape in which residents talk about their plants.

Iris Honderdos ‘I have experienced that art can be a special medium in promoting mutual understanding and communication.’ Her work always focuses on a group of people with a common characteristic such as the inhabitants of a village or an institution, employees of a company or students of a school, but it can also be a group with a shared experience such as refugees or war victims.

The process of working is an important part of any project. For her, it is important that the outcome is recognizable to those involved; they must feel seen or recognized.

In most projects she works together with her partner, sound artist Arno Peeters.

www.artonlocation.nl