Sophie Krier

What can we learn from life cycles on a school meadow? From 2022 to 2024, a series of semester-long artistic-pedagogical processes was launched on the grounds of HLW Bad Ischl and an outdoor learning space grew. Together with Daniela Brasil, I developed the Garden of Moving Times there in dialogue with teachers, students and related experts and initiatives. The project was produced by <rotor > Centre for Contemporary Art in the context of Bad Ischl Salzkammergut Cultural Capital of Europe 2024. Rooted in the concept of ‘care’, which theoretically plays a central role in education at HLW (a secondary school for economics, social management and care), the Garden of Moving Times is about reclaiming our relationship to the earth - time understood as time to ground and replenish ourselves - as opposed to time as a measure of production. In the garden, broken relationships with plant, animal, mineral and ancestral worlds can be restored. What is school time, body time, garden time? Underlying the design is the intention to take time to care and heal by embracing natural time cycles. photo Pia Fronia

Since 2008, Sophie Krier's publication series Field Essays brings together thinkers and practitioners from artistic and scientific fields of knowledge to make complex issues palpable. In this fifth issue, Krier explores with filmmaker Saodat Ismailova (Uzbekistan) and decolonial thinker Rolando Vázquez (México) what their cultures can learn from each other in mourning and healing the triple colonial wound of timelessness, earthlessness and worldlessness.

For its concluding episode in South Tyrol, School of Verticality explored the potential of weaving borders to challenge the understanding, in Western modernity, of our belonging to certain spaces or identities: land, nation-states, nature, culture, species, gender. In an age when walls are erected and separation overshadows coexistence, frontiers have become more than cognitive or political symbols. Some are displacing life, but sometimes life is displacing them. In this context, I proposed to reinvent Allan Kaprow’s happening OVERTIME, realized only once in Spring 1968 at University of California, San Diego. In this work, the artist gives instructions to move an 200 feet (+- 50 m) snow fence over a distance of 1 mile (+- 1,5 km) in the course of one night. Like many other happenings, OVERTIME develops Kaprow’s guiding principle of blurring boundaries between art and life. The piece was never re-invented. photo by Joerg Oschmann

The second episode of School of Verticality, Seeding Stories, took place on February 23rd, 2019 at Sockerhof farm in Mals-Malles, Obervinschgau, during the first edition of the Seed swap market SamenFest. On this day, the idea to collect & exchange not only seeds but especially seed stories was activated amongst underground, activist communities of seed savers from Italy, Switserland, Austria and Germany. The growing, living archive of seed stories is still in progress; I am looking into two options: a) an online series of illustrated podcasts which could function as a satellite to existing online seed databases b) an open app that would allow anyone to tell, collect and share her seed stories, and to find out more about the seed itself by linking to expert sites. Photo Joerg Oschmann

Field Essays adopts an editorial approach to practice-based research. It functions as a living conversation platform that explores peripheral practices probing unknown territories, methods and works. In this way, Field Essays articulates living practices today. The fourth issue of Field Essays, "Éloj Kréyol. Meanderings in the field of decolonial design" brings to the fore the research Éloj Kréyol by design-duo dach&zephir (Florian Dach and Dimitri Zephir). Initiated in 2015, Éloj Kréyol is an attempt to reconcile, and reactivate neglected artisanal and cultural lifelines in the genealogy of the French Caribbean archipelago. The five meanders that structure this book are invitations to ponder on the hidden biographies of archival images (Encounter between Dimitri Zephir, Florian Dach and X, edited by Sophie Krier); the enduring creolisation and alienation processes in Martiniquan society (Creole Voices by André Lucrèce); the material ingenuity of a water jar, a simple kitchen knife, and a basket (Mapping Histories by dach& zephir); the richness’s and unknowns of a collaboration across cultures in the field of design (Design as Relationality, Aesthetics as Agency: on dach& zephir by Lucy Cotter); the circulation of aesthetic norms at the turn of the century (The Creole Ninfa by Thomas Golsenne); and our legacy to the upcoming generation (Nasyon A Ti Kréyol, Design as Transmission). Bon lekti! Book talks took place at DDW Eindhoven, OFFPRINT Paris, and Piet Zwart Instituut/Master Education in the Arts, Rotterdam in 2019. Onomatopee 55.3 ISBN 9-78493-148055 This issue of Field Essays was generously supported by Creative Industries Fund NL, Onomatopee Projects, Provincie Brabant, Atelier Sophie Krier, EnsadLab – PSL Université Paris and authors © 2019. All photos by Onomatopee. Graphic design by Inedition

The third episode of School of Verticality, Breaking Bread, followed up on Seeding Stories. The biography of bread begins with a seed. By interacting with the landscape and fellow humans, the seed becomes grain, flour, dough, cultural product and intangible heritage. Taking the saying “if you lose bread, you lose culture” as a point of departure, this hands-on episode addressed cereal cultivation, crop diversity, and climate change. Bread traditions, recipes and gestures from Afghanistan (the cradle of cereal cultivation) and South Tyrol were jointly explored. A pilot bread baking workshop took place within the context of the “Hier und Da – Gut leben im ländlichen Raum / Il buon vivere nelle zone periferiche” festival (April 12-14 2019) in Obervinschgau. This 1000 to 1500 meter high valley was once known as the grain attic of South Tyrol. Eco-activists have joined forces to revitalise, retell, and diversify its grain legacy, in an attempt to counter sprawling industrial apple and wine monoculture. But which forms of ancient knowledge, from which parts of the world, are still accessible to us? The workshop components included: a Reference Wall (visualising the interconnectedness of bread and culture); Totem Apron (decorating a self-made apron with a personal animal totem, to invoke its qualities during baking); Collective Recipe Booklet (enabling personal note taking and peer sharing); Wild Grass Lecture (going back to the origin of cultivated grasses, and connecting to a scientific perspective on landscape); Bread Plank (sawing one’s own bread plank from the slice of a tree); Zopf, Draach, Url Paarl (traditional South Tyrolian breads), Roth, Fateer (Afghan breads), Hier und Da Paarl, Gebildebröt (revisited & remixed breads). photo Marion Oberhofer

The first episode of School of Verticality, Weaving Gardens, was defined in close collaboration with the Donne Nissà association and the gardeners of the Semirurali garden of Bolzano. Together with social association Akrat, Sophie Krier installed a vertical loom in the garden, with the intention to create a collective fabric that would depict the cultural stories and memories of the garden. The woven fabric and collected voices are still in the process of being edited into an audiovisual installation, including a local podcast. The loom remains on site, where over the next few seasons it can intertwine with the local vegetation, and uses (having a rest, chatting). It is intentionally simplified, so it can also be used for other purposes (story telling, music podium, storage). On 22 September 2018, participants of the Semirurali Festa della Racolta (Harvest Festival) were invited to activate the loom by weaving their personal garden memories using the inclusive technique of plain weave. Visual anthropologist Francesca Cozzolino guided 1:1 conversations. Local weaver Cornelia Larcher assisted newcomers in the warp and weft logic. Singer Cecilia Muñoz proposed a celebratory dance from Argentina. With thanks to Semirurali garden coordinators Hilary Solly and Susanne Waiz. Initially developed in the context of a research residency with cultural association Lungomare, Bolzano. Hosted by the community garden Orto Semirurali | Donne Nissà. All photos by Jörg Oschmann, courtesy Lungomare. Graphic design by Inedition.

Outdoor classroom, a free space for thought & observation garden. The outdoor classroom is part of the celebration of the 400th anniversary of the birth of fellow townsman, fine painter and insect expert Johannes Goedaert (1617-1668), an initiative of Kees Beaart (Goedaert Collection). Sophie Krier previously curated the exhibition Uyt Eygen Ervarendtheyd about what we can learn from Goedaert, at the invitation of the Zeeuws Museum and in collaboration with Manon Berendse. The Goedaert Gown and Metamorfoselokaal_Zakcatalogus were realised in hommage to Goedaert’s relentless curiosity. The outdoor classroom is an initiative of Barbara Oomen, co-designed by Sophie Krier en Henriëtte Waal and supported by University College Roosevelt and the Municipality of Middelburg in the context of 800 Years of Middelburg, with help of many donors through the crowdfunding platform Geef Onderwijs. The project was made possible by a coaching trajectory of the Province of Zeeland in collaboration with Douw & Koren and the cooperation of Zeeuws Hout, Shipyard Arnemuiden / Stichting Behoud Hoogaars and metal company Minderhout-Schipper from Arnestein. During the inauguration of the open-air classroom, the Ghent-based artist Dirk Zoete gave a musically framed performance as part of Façade 2017, a manifestation of CBK Zeeland. Photos Thom Schaar. On a windy Sunday morning after the inauguration of the Metamorphosis Local, the first public drawing lesson “The Thinking Monk” was given by Sylvia Radius (Cultuurhuis Kuiperspoort), introduced by a lecture by cultural historian Jeanine Dekker. Photo Sjoerd Knibbeler

Things that happened Field Essays enables listening pauses between thinkers and practitioners in an attempt to weave other histories of the worlds we inhabit. 1 book 4096 image combinations 37 strange but true anecdotes 2 discussions with anthropologist Tim Ingold 1 foreword by Li Edelkoort + 1 vinyl 27 minutes of terrific stories and sounds This third issue, Things that happened, looks into the fascinating work of emerging Icelandic designer Brynjar Sigurðarson, and his at times uneasy encounter with anthropologist Tim Ingold. The publication includes a foreword by Li Edelkoort, a conversation with Tim Ingold on the nature of things and how to approach them, as well as a 12-inch LP for which Sigurðarson collected, recorded, and mixed stories on eery soundscapes. A selection of previously unpublished drawings and writings is included for amateurs of hand-made details, myths, darkness, isolation, micro-history, memory, stones, animals and supernatural. The book is built any pre-made categories and without any chronology. Photographs, projects made during studies and manufactured objects are juxtaposed without classification. This well-conscious disorder is accentuated by the presence of an horizontal perforation which crosses the entire publication. Pages can be torn in two. Thus, the disorder is amplified. Images and texts combine randomly, forming a multitude of collages (…). This cut resonates with the inclination of the designer to combine different materials to create an object: wood, metal, fur, feather, rope… – ÉricandMarie Realised in partnership with Onomatopee, the Sandberg Instituut / Studio for Immediate Spaces. Crowdfunded via KissKissBankBank. Sponsored by MUDAM, Villa Noailles Hyères and Galerie Kréo Paris. Graphic design by Ericandmarie.

Hoopvolle Handelingen (hopeful gestures) As human beings, we can face the future with optimism or cynicism. These are two common attitudes. However, one could also adopt a hopeful attitude. On the first day of this working week - where everything is still open - we devote ourselves to acting out of hope. What meaningful future relationships can we outline by acting out of hope? We start this day with the question: When did you act from hope in your life? In preparation we ask you, as a participant, to reflect on this question and to include a description of a hopeful action. Remember that it may be something very small, but also very big. With the intended result, or not. Last week, or twenty years ago. Take the description with you (memory / text / image / gesture / object). On the basis of these personal descriptions, we will work during the day in a number of steps on imaginations and translations of hopeful actions. Wanted: hopeful acrobats, policy makers, scientists, engineers, philosophers, artists, draughtsmen, writers, clowns, big and small children, handy and clumsy people. Bring: description of hopeful action; warm (rain) clothes in bad weather; own mug; open mind; swimming trunks. In collaboration with Mathijs Labadie (photographer, Labadie/Van Tour ) and Rineke Kraaij (programme maker Bureau Kraaij Out of Office). The unknown location, Brienenoord island, has now grown into the warm cultural breeding ground Buitenplaats Brienenoord. Reflection and photo credits / participants: HoopvolleHandelingen-Krier-aug2014

Every object contains an image Field Essays enables listening pauses between thinkers and practitioners in an attempt to weave other histories of the worlds we inhabit. This second issue entitled Every Object Contains An Image juxtaposes the work of designer Jonathan Muecke (Detroit/Chicago, USA) and the work of photographer Bas Princen (Rotterdam/Singapore/Zürich). With his photographs, Princen recomposes built and un-built landscapes — revealing their mind blowing oddities and carefully guiding our eye through them. On the other hand, the core motive of Muecke’s design practice is “to retain potential in an object”. Muecke’s bold artefacts function as probes that venture into the realm of our perception — attempting to detect its hidden mechanisms. Both create visual propositions that “make room” — thereby making room for another reading of the world. Included in this issue are a Manual by Muecke and a Reference Booklet by Princen, printed in a numbered edition. Realised in partnership with Onomatopee, Utrecht Manifest No. 4 Biennale of Social Design, and the Sandberg Instituut / Studio for Immediate Spaces. Made possible through a grant of The Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts. Graphic design by Ericandmarie. This issue of Field Essays manifested itself through a work-in-process exhibition as part of FACE VALUE, TENT.Rotterdam (17.11.2011 – 08.01.2012). FACE VALUE focused “on the re-evaluation of the question of autonomy in the design process. What role does independent research play – non-commissioned, with no thought of possible applications and without significance – in the development of the designer’s work?” The book was launched through a double lecture and exhibition hosted by Onomatopee. Bas Princen and Jonathan Muecke continue to work together from time to time. Muecke was invited in 2016 by gallery Maniera Brussels for a residency at the Van Wassenhove House by the Belgian architect Juliaan Lampens to produce new work (Maniera 07). Muecke and I made another audio Reference booklet for the occasion.

Pick of sticks embodied Field Essays enables listening pauses between thinkers and practitioners in an attempt to weave other histories of the worlds we inhabit. Pick of Sticks Embodied, the very first issue of the series, brings together the work of design duo LucyandBart (AU/NL) and philosopher Marek Pokropski (PL). Lucyandbart work close to the body, and their working process is erratic and impulsive; they generate ambiguous images that depict our skin as a an interface between our self and the world. Marek Pokropski introduces a philosophical framework in an essay about our embodied perception of the world. In the run up to this publication, Field Essays workshops took place a.o. at Icelandic Academy of Art and Design (IS), Bolzano University (I), Cranbrook Academy (USA) and Vanabbe Museum (NL). Realised in partnership with Onomatopee, the Professorship of Art and Public Space (Rietveld Academie Amsterdam), The Netherlands Foundation for Visual Arts, Design and Architecture (Fonds BKVB), the CBK Onderzoek & Ontwikkeling (Research & Development) grant. Graphic design by Andreas Tscholl. This issue of Field Essays manifested itself through a Making Sense workshop/exhibition hosted by Onomatopee, building on a previous Making Sense workshop with Bas van Beek at Vanabbe Museum Eindhoven.