A Growing Commons for city wildlife and community:

An integral part of a new cultural hub at Stichting INDEBT at the Govert Flinckstraat 286 is the development of an ecological sculptural garden that I am creating;  a project in which my practice merges landscape gardening with visual art. This larger-than-life artwork is both a site of research and a social sanctuary: an ecological oasis in the heart of De Pijp, offering a moment of refuge for city dwellers,  from artists and creatives to children, elders, and neighbors.

The garden can be seen as a continuation of my earlier series Navigating the Unseen (2021), where natural materials such as stone and moss were transformed into installations. Here, my focus turns to the classic Dutch concrete paving tile (stoeptegel), an emblem of post-war modernism and functionality. By reshaping this square, concrete unit into flowing, circular movements, I reimagine something rigid as something organic, open, and alive.

The garden is both enduring and always in flux, shaped by the cycles of the Dutch seasons. Built with organic leftover materials, it forms a living tension between allowing things to grow and intervening,  between what is natural and what is constructed. A garden, after all, is not a piece of untouched nature, but a cultivated in-between space where human design and natural growth meet, clash, and sometimes merge.

It is also my workspace for research and material exploration, while actively contributing to the biodiversity of Amsterdam.

The garden is currently under construction and will be completed by spring.
Its opening will be celebrated on June 21, 2026.