Shared Grounds: Gouwplein Biodiversity Garden
Kate Price & Guillem S. Arquer
14.04., 19.05. & 30.06.2024
Shared Grounds: Gouwplein Biodiversity Garden is a project by artists Kate Price and Guillem S. Arquer, in collaboration with Rib, centred around a semi-neglected area of the Gouwplein public park in the Rotterdam neighbourhood of Oud Charlois. Within this ‘backyard garden’ Kate and Guillem are hoping to explore the site in its current state, researching the plant and other species presently inhabiting it, and perform gentle and considered acts of maintenance to the area to encourage a growth of biodiversity and attention to the local ecosystem. This will be attempted through working sessions within the garden and introducing new structural elements, such as a composting system and insect hotels.
These working moments will be open to members of the public to join, hoping to acquaint them with the area and share information, hopes, and knowledge pertaining to human and more-than-human relationships and ecological concerns. Alongside their efforts to make the garden a safe haven for insects, animals and plant species ‘naturalised’ to the Rotterdam and Charlois area, the project will question the concepts of ‘native’ and ‘invasive’, the migratory behaviour of plants and how this has been accelerated, or not, by the climate mutation triggered by the Anthropocene/Capitalocene.
You are invited to join Kate and Guillem during any of the following workshops:
14.04.2024, 15:00 – 17:00, Seed Swap and Plant Propagation Workshop at Rib
19.05.2024, 11:00 – 13:00, Bring your Own Plant Day at Gouwplein Biodiversity Garden
Follow this project on our social media channels and the blog that the artists have started to archive the day to day activities and researches of the garden.
Kate Price and Guillem S. Arquer are both artists based in Rotterdam South. Their collaboration stems from a shared interest in composting. This project at Rib continues their joint research formed during ‘Investigating: Humus Communities in Rotterdam’, a research residency hosted by the Goethe Institut, where they worked with the collective knowledge(s) of Rotterdammers involved in compost-making to learn about their positive relationships with soil.