Art for Climate’s Sake

The second Ijssel biennale was held in the summer of 2021. The theme last year was Climate Change and was defined by the words ‘Tide, Time and Temporality’. During the event, the art-route in the Ijssel valley was visited by nearly 70,000 people. It is to the credit of the organisers that through the medium of Modern Art based on the theme of Climate Change, they were able to unite many private and public organisations. The art-route on the contemporary topic of Climate Change gave the event greater exposure. Through this art project, public consciousness was awakened about the issues of Climate Change in general and the Ijssel landscape in particular.

Attention and Awareness

On a day in September 2021, a small group of people walked on a path in a cornfield just outside the city of Deventer along the river Ijssel. After a short march they reached a roughly 3-metre-tall, semi-circular structure built with turf. The group formed an intimate circle, sitting on bales of straw. Once they were comfortable, Japanese artist Haruka Matsuo began the ceremony of serving tea. Silently she poured tea in the traditional Japanese way for each participant, who then quietly enjoyed it. The ceremony invites participants to be in the ‘here and now’ and to ponder in silence on issues such as how we experience the ground we stand on.

This experience describes the art-project ‘The Way of Soil’ by the Dutch artist Elmo Vermijs. The title refers to the process of change and transition of the ground on which we live. Transition is the key word, of the location as well as of the art object itself. The farmer in whose field the artwork has been created has switched his business operations from the traditional way to a biological one with more attention to healthy soil conditions. The art-object itself and its immediate context too change with the seasons. In the beginning, in the middle of summer, the art-object was surrounded by fields full of corn so that the earlier views over the farmlands were restricted. At the end of the Ijssel biennale the bales of straw, which formed the art-object were spread over the surrounding fields. With that action, the nitrogen that had temporarily been stored in the bales, was returned to the soil. The art had transited back to the earth without a trace.

The land-art project ‘The Way of Soil’ is a subtle wake-up call. Intensive agricultural technology in large parts of the world has so badly impoverished and exhausted the soil that it affects the biodiversity and food supply and endangers the climate.
 

The art installations were so located that they could be visited and explored on foot, by cycle or by car

Intent of the Art-Route and the Ijssel biennale

‘The Way of Soil’ was just one of the 27 – mostly temporary – art installations that were connected by a trail stretching over a length of 120 kms from the city of Doesburg to the city of Zwolle, both historic cities located on the river Ijssel. The art installations were so located that they could be visited and explored on foot, by cycle or by car. The art trail encouraged visitors to get thoroughly acquainted with the beautiful river landscape along the Ijssel and with the spatial and infrastructural developments, which are presently in the phase of design and development. A specially prepared travel guide, a route map and QR code available via an online platform gave information about the art installations and the locations, and the sustainable developments in the neighbourhood, which are being undertaken and will help mitigate the effects of Climate Change.

During the Ijssel biennale, cultural activities were organised at several locations along the art-trail. Some were short one-off events while others, like an exhibition, lasted longer. These activities added an extra dimension to the original intent of an art-trail in a public space and enriched the experience of learning about Climate Change.

Climate Change as a Theme

Climate Change is serious, immense and urgent, but also an extremely complex challenge, which the whole of humanity faces. A challenge that, due to its complexity and vastness, is almost incomprehensible and to which there are no simple answers.

A wide range of groups are engaged in tackling the issue: managers, politicians, academicians, entrepreneurs, landscape architects, urban planners, water-management experts, activists and ordinary citizens and artists. Through visual art and with the help of other activities such as the Ijssel Conference, the Ijssel biennale created a forum where diverse participants could meet. It was a place for awareness and inspiration.

In the former energy plant of Harculo, during the Ijssel biennale, an exhibition was set up to show sustainable innovations and initiatives of local entrepreneurs. In order to ‘practice what you preach’ the organisers of the Ijssel biennale set up the exhibition with as small a carbon footprint as possible. This was achieved on the one hand by making the art installations from recyclable materials and on the other by encouraging the visitors to tour the exhibition on a bicycle.

The Ijssel valley offered an appropriate and inspiring work and research area for the theme of Climate Change. In recent years, in order to mitigate the effects of Climate Change, more space for water has been created to counter the effects of more frequent torrential rains, floods and higher water levels. In this connection, large-scale infrastructural projects have been executed, which have changed the perception of the centuries-old river landscape. That these measures were vital and not superfluous was evident in the summer of 2021 when due to extremely heavy rains parts of Germany and Belgium and the southern province of Limburg in the Netherlands were flooded. Within the Ijssel valley also some measures had to be undertaken such as the temporary removal of some art installations and curtailing of the art route.

Ijssel biennale… was a place for awareness and inspiration

Climate Change and Landscape Art

The artists of the Ijssel biennale, driven by the theme of Tide, Time and Temporality, asked themselves a question: How would Climate Change affect the landscape and its inhabitants in the Ijssel valley? And how could measures be taken to minimise the negative effects of this change and how will the landscape change, with time.

Some of the art installations described below are representative of those exhibited in the Ijssel biennale 2021. Some projects were direct and evident, others more poetic and metaphorical.

Artist and sculptor Adrien Tirtiaux depicted the humanitarian effect of Climate Change in the form of a Population Pyramid: a vast majority of the global population would bear the harsh brunt of Climate Change. Only the rich and the very rich of this world (as represented by the artist through the expensive materials on top of his pyramid) would literally and figuratively be able to stay dry. Located at a bend on the River Ijssel, just to the north of the city of Zwolle, the 9-metre-tall art piece formed an iconic end to the trail; a beautiful and yet threatening monument due to its underlying message.

The art-project Pressura by artist Marinke van Zandwijk magically converted the 19th century water-lock-complex Katerveer into a place of resting, dreaming and reflection. Around the complex, she randomly placed distorted glass bulbs in various tints of blue, green and grey. These referred to balloons, which had partly deflated. With her work, Marinke van Zandwijk referred to Climate Change by stating the way the Earth is now putting pressure on the humans inhabiting it. In doing so the artist illustrated how the Earth is now paying its due to the humans who have exploited her for generations.

Artist Alphons ter Avest sawed willows from the flood plains of the river into planks and built a lemniscate-shaped loop, which embraced two chestnut trees.

The fungus-like forms made from wood, which the Brazilian artist Henrique Oliveira placed in an old water-mill near Voorst threaten to eat up the building. They metaphorically illustrated the unexpected forces Climate Change is letting loose.

The art-installation entitled Camping Deluge by Leonard Passchier consisting of a number of life rafts placed in a secondary channel of the Ijssel near the city of Zwolle referred to the fact that each family needs to have one, just in case.
 

The Importance of Initiatives like Ijsselland

We cannot solve the problems of Climate Change only with visual arts, the starting point of the Ijssel biennale. However, the artists can help make the unimaginable into something more imaginable by illustrating various aspects of climate and landscape and connecting these to the riverscape in transition.

The way in which the visitor could experience the manifestation – preferably on bicycle, necessitating more time leading to a better experience. ‘The Way Of Soil’ described at the beginning of this article illustrates how more time is necessary to ponder and contemplate this crisis, which we are unable to do during the course of our daily routine despite being deluged with articles about Climate Change and loss of biodiversity.

Seen in relation to the beautiful river landscape of the Ijssel, the issues of Climate Change became more concrete and recognisable. That such a ‘soft’ approach through visual arts can have a serious impact was brought to notice by listening to the comments of the visitors and participants.

As one alderman put it, “I now realise that I am not doing enough to tackle the issue of Climate Change. While we do take some steps as politicians and administrators, they are clearly not enough.” It is exactly this sort of insight that the organisers of Ijssel biennale had intended to achieve.