Puree & Pruimenvlaai

In the upcoming year, 2024, I will be working on the project Puree&Pruimenvlaai (EN: Potato Puree & Plum Cake), a self-initiated research framework supported by Mondriaan Fund and in collaboration with Museum Het Nieuwe Domein. This research project narrates stories of local Limburg identity from a vegetal perspective. 

The research is divided into three main historical topics, namely, Bandkeramiekers (5500–4400 B.C.), the Roman occupation (50 B.C. –450), and the Bokkenrijders (1740–1798). All three are central to regional history and significant in constructing local identity. I will approach the topics, archeological collections, and sources in my research from an eco-feminist perspective. I describe this perspective in the writing and methodology of Vegetal Curating. 

During the research phase in 2024, I will activate the museums’ archeological collection on the three topics in collaboration with contemporary artists. With a focus on sensory aspects of the research, I invite the imagination to develop stories from non-human entities as a dialogue to archival material and fieldwork. A vegetal species, consecutively the einkorn cereal, plum tree, and potato, will be central to the storytelling for each historical period.