Exhibition 'über Wasser gehen', Sezeke, Germany. Ruhr 2010 Cultural capital of Europe
Permaculture school site and program, in coöperation with Eduard von Diem
'At the Sezekemündung I will create a modest settlement, the first visual and physical footprint of the idea: the 'Permakultur Schule am fluss'. This is a meeting point, knowledge base, showroom and experimental woodland garden. Inhabitants from the Sezeke region are invited to join in. A skilled permaculture designer will share his knowledge and evoke ideas in a workshop and study group. A small inspired group of people will be the hard core. From there, the ideas will have to be spread further, and hopefully trigger a snowball effect that will result in a transformation of the region. Idealy it will lead to a direct influence of inhabitants on their landscape. They will be free to plant and harvest along the Sezeke according to the permaculture design. Regardeless of the scale of its execution, the work challenges the existing preconceptions of ecology, landscape design and agriculture, and the political and economical mechanisms that make the Sezeke look and function the way it does. And it envisions an alternative.' (Jeroen Doorenweerd, exhibition catalogue)