Seedlings, Zocher and the Soft City

Seedlings, Zocher and the Soft City - A Sensory Walk in the City of Utrecht.

Seedlings are rare in the city – they are only there when and if people tolerate them. Our way of doing things contain all kinds of habits that determine what we see and experience. Just outside the obvious, there is an area waiting to be entered – in cracks, between paving stones and steps, where seedlings find their way in a stony city. Let's follow in their footsteps and search for the soft city. In this walk you are invited to move and observe in an unfamiliar way. Sensory, searching, sometimes silent, attentive, listening. The walk meanders from the museum garden through the city centre and back along the Singel designed by Zocher.

Related to: Accidental Greenery, Seedlings of the City, https://www.utrechtnatuurlijk.nl/toevalliggroen/ and Botanical Revolution in Centraal Museum Utrecht https://www.centraalmuseum.nl/en/exhibitions/botanicalrevolution?set_language=en

Urban greenery consists mainly of planted trees, parks and public and private gardens. But nature also chooses spots in the city to exert her primal power. Shrubs or trees sprout spontaneously in the most unexpected places: seedling. We usually find them in sheltered areas or abandoned plots where little or no maintenance takes place. In these places, where there is less human intervention, we feel the tension between the function we have ascribed to a space and the natural forces that attempt to recapture it. This project allows us to experience the power of nature in the built environment. In the accompanying series of videos and articles, we hear the stories of residents who have a special bond with a tree that grew spontaneously in their neighbourhood. 

Contributors

Ienke Kastelein is an interdisciplinary artist with a background in visual arts. In her projects, performances and walks she explores sensorial ways to engage with the world and her audience.

Related projects : Walking with... 3 curated walks with Hans van Lunteren, Nikos Doulos, Wim van Sijl, and Zintuiglijk Wandelen, in Museum IJsselstein, Walking Time, Mapping a walk with words, in Time Matters Apria, ArtEZ, 2021; Urban Tree Festival with Missing Trees, walks for Renature Den Bosch 2021, The walk Zaailingen Zocher en de Zachte Stad for Botanical Revolution, Centraal Museum 2021/2. Walled Ground, a Free Zone for Seedlings / a path is made by walking is an ongoing participatory project by Hans van Lunteren and Ienke Kastelein next to the former prison Wolvenburg.

Visit Ienke’s website, follow her on Facebook and Instagram.

Hans van Lunteren is a visual artist working in public space, with a specific interest in urban seedlings.  Related projects : SJANGHAIPARK 1969-present time ( book : Sjanghaipark Experimenteel geworteld in het alledaagse / Experimentally rooted in the everyday, 2021, https://nl.japsambooks.nl/products/sjanghaipakr, Accidental Greenery, Seedlings of the City, part of  exhibition the Botanical Revolution in Centraal Museum Utrecht.

Website: www.hansvanlunteren.nl

Both Hans van Lunteren and Ienke Kastelein  live and work in Utrecht, the Netherlands.