Opening of the Green Heart Biennale main exhibition, Saturday May 30, 15.00 @ GOUDasfalt in Gouda

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On Saturday, May 30, at 15.00, the main exhibition of the Green Heart Biennale opens at GOUDasfalt, the extensive bottom-up creative hub on the Hollandse IJssel, directly opposite the historic city center of Gouda.

The Green Heart Biennale is a new international, regional, and local festival of art and design for ecological regeneration, focused on the Green Heart region. It explores how art, design, and citizen initiatives can contribute to the restoration and improvement of the local living environment for all forms of life.

The official opening of the first edition of the festival will be performed by Thierry van Vugt, Alderman for Culture, Heritage, and Monuments at the Municipality of Gouda. The exhibition brings together local and international eco-regenerative art and design projects that align with the festival’s four main themes: Swamp Imaginaries, The Underground, Arboreal, and Under Water.

During guided tours for the public, attending artists and designers will discuss their work and the underlying ideas. Featuring, among others: Eva-Maria Lopez, Christine Hvidt, Nicole Spit, Lilet Breddels, Oksana Hrabchak, Letizia Artioli, Pawel Pokutycki, Green Office, and curators Eric Kluitenberg and Tania Goryucheva.

On Sunday afternoon, May 31, starting at 13.00, Christine Hvidt will lead listening sessions with the public at her sculpture Subterranean, a listening sculpture made from discarded tree stumps that makes life in the soil audible.

That afternoon, we will engage in conversation with the attending artists, designers, special guests, and the public.

The exhibition is then freely accessible from Wednesday to Sunday from 11.00 to 19.00, and runs through Sunday, June 21.

Themes and Artists

Around the theme Swamp Imaginaries, Anne Zarske conducted artistic research in and into the Nieuwkoopse Plassen. This resulted in a new film, and a site-specific performance, Bodies of Water, taking place in the area on June 6. The international art and research project Sensing Peat juxtaposes this with its explorations of wetlands in various parts of the world.

Christine Hvidt is installing listening sculptures built with discarded tree stumps at GOUDasfalt and simultaneously at Tuinen van Boskoop and Het Groene Huis in Boskoop. Her project Subterranean makes the sounds of the living soil audible. In listening sessions, the artist guides the public through sonic explorations of the life beneath our feet, part of the theme The Underground.

^{Christine Hvidt, Subterranean (sketch), 2026}

Nicole Spit presents 3D scans of monumental trees and stories from residents of Gouda about what they mean to them, part of the theme Arboreal, in the Digital Tree Monument – a model to preserve these special trees in a virtual environment.

For Under Water, Minji Kim is conducting research into the acoustic landscape of the major rivers near Gorinchem. Using self-built EMF microphones, she makes sound waves audible that lie below the human hearing limit. These vibrations, often caused by large ships and machinery, have a strong impact on life in and along the rivers. In her workshop on June 18 in Gorinchem, she teaches participants how to build these microphones themselves and conduct their own sound research.

The Dnipro Integrated Vision project developed extensive scenarios for the Dnipro River basin in Ukraine, which became a frozen front in the war following the destruction of the Kakhovska Dam. How can the regeneration of an entire region be conceived, eagerly looking forward to the end of this terrible conflict?

With the eco-activist land art project and ornamental garden we.resist / I never promised you a green garden, Eva Maria Lopez draws attention to the problems associated with the use of herbicides against plants considered weeds in agriculture and horticulture.

^{Eva Maria Lopez seeding “I never promised you a green garden”}

Urban Reef presents the result of a new method for 3D printing sculptural elements using clay, which provide a favourable habitat for diverse life forms, plants, insects, and other creatures.

The Green Office of the KABK in The Hague and EcoSenda, a European educational project, demonstrate how ecological and regenerative principles can be integrated into art education.

Letizia Artioli developed the spatial design of the exhibition, a materialisation of invisible ecological networks.

More about the projects:
https://groenehartbiennale.nl/en/projects

Location

During the weekends a small ferry will be in operation, operated by volunteers from 12.00 till 18.00. The ferry leaves from the stop Nieuwe Veerstal (see map below).

GOUDasfalt
www.goudasfalt.nl
Gouderaksedijk 34
Gouda

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Four weekends with special public programs

Following the opening weekend in Gouda, local public programs will take place over consecutive weekends at various locations in the Groene Hart: June 6 and 7 in Nieuwkoop and the Nieuwkoopse Plassen, June 13 and 14 in Boskoop, June 18 in Gorinchem, and finally on June 20 and 21 in Gouda.

Overview of the program:
https://groenehartbiennale.nl/en/programme

Organisation

The Green Heart Biennale is organised by Terrestris, the new platform for eco-regenerative culture, in collaboration with an extensive network of regional and (inter)national partners. The aim is to organise the festival every two years in the Green Heart region.

Contact: info@groenehartbiennale.nl

Stay up to date on projects and the program and subscribe to the Green Heart Biennale newsletter:
https://news.terrestris.nl/subscription/form

Support

Our special gratitude goes out to the GOUDasfalt team, Wouter Enderink, Hans Wijnsema, Erik Rietveld, and the volunteers for their support in realising the exhibition and the festival.

The Green Heart Biennale is financially supported by:

Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie, LEADER Hollandse Plassen, Province of South Holland, Municipality of Gouda, Co-financed by the European Union.