New festival of art and design for ecological regeneration
From May 30 to June 21 2026, the first edition of the Green Heart Biennale will take place, a new festival of art and design for ecological regeneration focused on the Green Heart region in The Netherlands. The Green Heart Biennale is simultaneously an international, local, and regional festival. 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.
This first edition consists of local public programs organised over four consecutive weekends at various locations in the Green Heart: Nieuwkoop and the Nieuwkoopse Plassen, Boskoop, Gouda, and Gorinchem. Four ‘seedling projects’ featuring international artists are specially developed for these locations and actively involve local cultural organisations and initiatives as well as the local population.
The program includes presentations by artists, designers, researchers, ecological initiatives, practical workshops, public discussions and educational programs, and explorations of the surrounding area. Throughout the entire festival period (May 30 to June 21), the central exhibition can be seen in Gouda at GOUDasfalt, the extensive bottom-up creative hub on the Hollandse IJssel, directly opposite the city’s historic center.
The exhibition brings together local and international eco-regenerative art and design projects around the four main themes of the festival:
Swamp Imaginaries, The Underground, Arboreal and Under Water.
Participating artists, designers, and initiatives include: Eva-Maria Lopez (DE), Christine Hvidt (DK),Nicole Spit (NL), Anne Zarske (DE), Sensing Peat (Kim Bode, Kallia Kefala, Suza Husse, LT / DE), Urban Reef (NL), Dnipro River Integrated Vision (Oksana Hrabchak, Svitlana Usychenko, Fulco Treffers) (UA), Minji Kim (KR), EcoSenda / Green Office KABK (NL), Pierre Oskam (NL), Sissel Marie Tonn (DK/NL), David Bollier (VS), Natasha Hulst (NL), Fred Booy (NL), Klaas Kuitenbrouwer (NL), JUST ART (Katia Kwastek, Rob Lubberink, NL).
Organisation
The Green Heart Biennale is organised by Terrestris, the new platform for eco-regenerative culture, initiated and lead by Eric Kluitenberg en Tania Goryucheva, 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.
Cool Mediators is acting as the organising and facilitating hub for the start of the new festival and the Terrestris platform.
More information and program
All information about the festival can be found at the website:
www.groenehartbiennale.nl/en
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https://news.terrestris.nl/subscription/form
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More information about Terrestris can be found on the website:
www.terrestris.nl
Contact: info@groenehartbiennale.nl
Support:
The Green Heart Biennale is supported by:
