Episode 6 with Studio Berkveldt

In the sixth episode, hosts Gijs van der Meer and Noortje Hansen invite the people behind Studio Berkveldt, namely Juriaan van Berkel and Noëlle Ingeveldt, to discuss their projects and their view on the symbiocene. Gijs and Noortje got the chance to interview the art researchers while they were setting up their work in the new exhibition in the Jan Cunen Museum in Oss.

Studio Berkveldt makes research-based audiovisual art installations that are usually based on biodiversity loss and landscape management in the Netherlands. Their work is also often about the relationship between man and nature and how we tend to prefer control over nature. They try to make people aware of these issues through videos and installations.

During the Dutch Design Week of 2022, Berkveldt presented their work “Dead and Alive” which showed the importance of undisturbed cadavers in the Dutch ecosystem. Growing up in a rural environment, Noelle Ingeveldt later realized that most of the rural landscape of the Netherlands is a heavily modified artificial place. Intrigued by these extreme modifications to the natural landscape, she There are only a few areas still considered “wild” but even these areas are changed to our liking. Our constant drive to tidy and perfect nature has reached a point where a huge conflict has appeared, between nature and humankind. Another work focused on the return of the wolf in the Netherlands, and this return has a significant impact on the society. Our livestock management cannot keep up with the natural instincts of the wolf, and this management is what amplifies the problem even more.