Fragrant Garden
Ilke Gers
Rib’s public garden with Ilke Gers, Cor van Gelderen and others
24.10.2019 – ongoing
A Fragrant Garden will slowly evolve within the neglected L-shaped public space surrounding the basketball/football court in Gouwplein in Rib’s back yard.
With entrances at the playground behind Rib and at Schilperoordstraat, the garden will subtly draw visitors along the pathways to discover an inviting space for the senses. Initial autumn planting will include flowers, berries and trees that unobtrusively cohabitate with existing plants. Leaving space for growth and for community involvement over time, this initial gesture is to create an accessible, friendly and inviting space.
Cor van Gelderen from the nursery Plantentuin Esveld in Boskoop made a beautiful plan for starting a garden that is bee-friendly, colourful, fragrant, partly edible, semi-native, and seasonal. Inside Rib a scrapbook documents the process and seasonal changes of the garden.
Ilke Gers is a visual artist from Aotearoa New Zealand. She works with installation, performance and publications that bring movement, behaviour, social and spatial conditions into play. She studied at the Werkplaats Typografie, and was a resident at the Jan van Eyck Academie from 2014-2015. Her work has been presented at LLS Paleis, Antwerp; NDSM Werf, Amsterdam; the Biënnale Van België, Ghent; Kunsthal Rotterdam; 019, Ghent; De Appel, Amsterdam; De Fabriek, Eindhoven; D21 – Kunstraum, Leipzig; Joey Ramone, Rotterdam; Beursschouwburg, Brussels. She is part of Action Publishing Collective, based in Rotterdam.