In 2022, Gino Anthonisse and Janne van Gilst moved from The Hague to Kamperland to take over the family farm Catharina Maria Hof. The artists have the ambitious plan to transform this mixed farm into a farm 2.0. The starting point and driving force is to give their backgrounds in art and education a leading role in the future of the farm. The farm offers a lot of opportunities: room to recreate, room to create, room to experiment, room to relax and room for nature.
The farm is constantly evolving and, by slowly scaling down the farming business, has made way for healthcare, recreation and now creativity. A former agricultural barn is now a multi-purpose space where exhibitions are organised, artists can work, and knowledge about making processes within the arts is shared through workshops.
The farm is located in the Onrustpolder, a polder bordering the Veerse Meer and the North Sea, amid vast agricultural fields and surrounded by large holiday parks. Recurring topics of conversation include the role of agriculture in food supply and its impact on nature, the existence or non-existence of the chasm between farmer and citizen, the role of tourism on the island and its effect on nature, additional coastal development and lagging waste streams, among others. In all this turmoil, the farm, with its tranquillity and spaciousness, forms the idyllic eye of an invisible yet present storm.
Last summer, the location joined the art route on North Beveland: Kunstspoor [https://kunstspoor.nl/]. Linking up with this already existing and well-known route provided an accessible way to experiment with creating exhibitions, as well as engaging in dialogue with Kunstspoor visitors about the exhibition and the venue. A total of 1,300 people visited the farm!
Artists were invited, working on themes related to the site and immediate surroundings:
- Gijsje Heemskerk (a hiking artist in the making) designed a walking route.
- Textile artist Nadie Borggreve displayed tapestries with floral representations made from sheep’s wool that she spun and dyed herself.
- Janne van Gilst showed her latest project ‘a Sugar Beet Saga’ in which she addresses the sugar beet as the cultural heritage of Noord-Beveland, also called Peeland (sugar beet country).
- Lou-Lou van Staaveren, a photographer from a family of flower farmers was also in attendance. For Van Staaveren, gardening and photography are surprisingly similar: both gardener and photographer move along a scale of control, with observation at one end and intervention at the other.
- Kevin Bauer has installed a sunken car park in the meadow next to the barn. A beautifully poetic image with a sharp edge and critical look to the future.
Photos of the exhibition can be found at Google Drive.
This exhibition was made possible by a financial contribution from the Hurgronje Family Fund.
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