Exhibition at the Fries Museum: Veenweide Atelier

For centuries, the Frisian landscape has been defined by its meadows, ditches, terps and characteristic farmhouses. In recent years, however, this landscape has been changing dramatically under the impact of climate change. Nowhere is this more visible than in the peat meadow areas, where concerns about subsidence, drought, loss of biodiversity and rising CO₂ emissionsare growing. Yet amid these challenges, another story unfolds — one of resilience and renewal.

In this exhibition, through art and design you’ll discover new ways of living within this changing landscape. Together with farmers, residents, scientists and designers, the exhibition envisions a future in which the peat meadow region remains liveable: for the peat itself, for the people who work and inhabit the land, and for the many non-human species that depend on it.

Through an eco-social and integrated design approach, internationally renowned designers and local experts collaborate to explore new perspectives. The exhibition presents three forward-thinking case studies:

·       A monumental farmhouse in the heart of the peatlands, where residents and conservationists jointly develop a sustainable new purpose that honours the beauty of rural heritage (in collaboration with OOZE Architects and It Fryske Gea).

·       A project working with soil bacteria to dye locally produced textiles, exploring new models for a bio-based economy (in collaboration with Faber Futures, the Boon family, and the Hanze University of Applied Sciences’ Centre of Expertise Biobased Economy).

·       A scalable furniture collection made from wetland crops cultivated on a peat-water farm (in collaboration with Friso Wiersma, Arno Kalfsvel, Ashok Bhadra, Tjeerd Veenhoven, and Jasper van Belle).

Material innovation, imagination, interdisciplinary collaboration and community building come together in this exhibition — as does the urgent need to address the condition of our peat meadow landscapes.