Nature is constantly moving, changing form. What role do humans play in this? How do the body and the landscape set each other in motion?

Landscaping is an interdisciplinary research and performance series in which a group of artists explore the relationship between humans and the constantly changing environment by movement and traces people leave behind. The Landscaping series consists of an event at Tolhuistuin on August 5th 2021, a dance production in the Amsterdamse Bos from 31 August to 4 September and publication by landscape architecture scholar Daphne Bakker.

The Body & The Landscape
5 Aug 20.00 - 22.00 hrs Tolhuistuin
Performance, music and talks
Antonio Jose Guzman, Esmee Geerken, Job Oberman (alias Oceanic)
Tickets

The Body & The Landscape

On this summer's evening, artists and scientists immerse you in their knowledge of nature, matter, life, and landscape. Under the old trees of the Tolhuistuin in the heart of Amsterdam, learn about the landscape's constant construction in relation to the body and mind.

Visual artist Antonio Jose Guzman performs a new piece from his international acclaimed Electric Dub Station Series. Pan-American Metamorphosis is a creative dance exploration, including body mapping through levels, shape, dub loops and dynamics schemas. Indigo dye is deeply rooted in African culture. In Surinam and elsewhere in the Americas, blue had the power to protect enslaved Africans and their descendants from evil spirits. Indigo was also the source of incomparable suffering and helped spur the 18th-century transatlantic trade, resulting in the enslavement of thousands.

Artist and earth scientist Esmee Geerken delves into the expanding ‘human ego’ to capture the world in models, maps, and stories. She wonders to what extent this urge disturbs our ability to 'be in the world'? In her lecture on the shaping of earth, the landscape, buildings and identity, Geerken searches for the sweet spot between chaos and order. How to balance between architectural and artistic forms of control and allowing for uncertainties and surprises? How can we let go of the human desire to control our environment and how do we form an inside that is connected to the outside? Answers to how we can let go of the human desire to control our environment.

Composer and producer Job Oberman records and distorts natural noise to create new sound experiences. He seeks the interaction and connection between birdsong and human language, in which we, as visitors in a landscape, gain a better understanding of nature. This evening, he will give a little insight into his research into sounds of nature, with a talk and a composition.

Credits Pan-American Metamorphosis Costumes: Iva Jankovic Performers: Antonio Jose Guzman, Shanti Monkou, Tara Masimer and Djatá Bart-Plange. Soundscape 1: Transillumination #1 - A DNA orchestration created using Guzman DNA sequencing. Soundscape 2: Orbital Ignition (Selector Jade Flux - Dub Remix)

Landscaping has been realized in collaboration with the Amsterdamse Bostheater, Korzo, Ruimtetijd and Tolhuistuin. Made possible by BNG Cultuurfonds, Fonds Podiumkunsten, Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stimuleringsfonds Creatieve Industrie and Amsterdams Fonds voor de Kunst.