Photo by Groninger Museum
Last week, the Children’s Biennale 2024 started in the Groninger Museum. In this exhibition artists work together with children around the main theme ‘A Better Place’. It is about the environment and sustainability, but also the social aspects of being yourself in ‘a better place’. One of the artists is Florentijn Hofman. He is best known for his gigantic animal sculptures in the public space. For this exhibition he wanted to create a large earthworm and therefore he contacted Jeroen Onrust (BirdEyes) to know more about these fascinating animals.
As a scientific, but also a creative centre to bridge the gap between science and society, this exhibition fits nicely in the work we aim do at BirdEyes. In October 2023 Lisse de Bie and Ellis Hendriksen of the Groninger Museum and Florentijn visited BirdEyes to talk about earthworms together with Renée Veenstra, Meri Hut, Emma Penning and Jeroen.
The earthworm tells a multi-layered story about liveable landscapes and how we interact with our environment, how we use the soil, how we produce our food etc. Most people do not think about it when they see an earthworm, but they play an important role for a better place. To give this humble creature a bigger stage, it might be necessary to reverse the perspectives: we become the earthworm crawling through the soil!
Florentijn build out of Groninger cardboard a huge earthworm, named WURM, where people could crawl through. It is a confrontational installation that revolves about trust, because it is completely dark when you are inside WURM. It is a physical journey of touch, where at the end of the tunnels there is hope and light.
On Saturday 23th of March Florentijn and Jeroen will go with 20 children ambassadors on earthworm expedition around the museum in Groningen. On Sunday 24 March, there is a public talk in the museum between Florentijn and Jeroen about earthworms, art and science.
You can buy tickets for this event on the website of the museum:
https://www.groningermuseum.nl/bezoek/activiteiten/sunday-talk-kinderbiënnale-a-better-place-
wurm
You can visit the Children’s Biennale 2024 in the Groninger Museum until 3 November 2024.
