The Soils Project: experimental collaboration between Australia, the Netherlands and Indonesia

The Soils Project at TarraWarra Museum of Art in Australia, 5 August to 12 November 2023, brings together 13 practitioners and collectives from Australia, the Netherlands and Indonesia to explore the complex and diverse relationships between environmental change and colonisation.

The exhibition is the latest iteration of an ongoing research-based experimental project developed in collaboration with leading contemporary arts museum the Van Abbemuseum in Eindhoven, Netherlands, Struggles for Sovereignty, a collective based in Yogyakarta, Indonesia and the TarraWarra Museum of Art near Melbourne, Australia. The Soils Project arises from specific and situated practices that each of the participants and artists brings to their understanding of soil, as both metaphor and matter.

The Soils Project has been in development since 2018. An international collaboration between three organisations, and several artists, curators, writers and activists, the project has manifested in various iterations over several years. With a curatorium comprising arts workers from TarraWarra Museum of Art, the Van Abbemuseum, and Struggles for Sovereignty, the project’s approach seeks and facilitates opportunities to listen to diverse voices and perspectives around notions of caring for land, soil and sovereign territories.

Works include a large-scale photographic installation, earth maps, video work, a collaborative painting and involvement from communities in the 3 countries.

The Soils Project will continue in 2024, when the Van Abbemuseum will present an exhibition, and in 2025, with a manifestation of the project in Indonesia.