Dolmen

Marit Westerhuis received a grant to develop new work. In the Sugar Field, in the midst of MOBi Square Garden, lies a green hill. The lush sea of flowers, filled with cornflowers and yarrow, envelops this hill like a thick colorful blanket. As you get closer, the hill reveals a a narrow door, with a round window. In an underground cavity, an object is highlighted as a precious artifact. This underground cavity is no accident. Built from stacked metal barrels, it forms the outline of a contemporary hunebed. Here, in this subterranean domain, Dolmen comes to life. A structured work of art, raised from the reused remnants of a previous work of art. Metal barrels, garden netting and pond boxes are meticulously combined to create an aesthetic and ecological structure. It encourages plants to shoot their roots and thrive on the rainwater stored underground in the barrels, making it an attractive habitat for various insects and other life.

Marit is inspired by technological developments in relation to the human body and nature in an ever-changing environment. Technology and the speed of technological progress fascinate her. She focuses on (pre)historical technology and ritual structures from the Stone and Bronze Age, which she interweaves with subjects such as alchemy, polytheism and the supernatural. Things that seem at odds with modern progressivism and technoism. She fuses these contradictions into an archaeological futurism. She focuses mainly on world mythology in relation to nature and ecocriticism. Her work depicts a post-bomb, deluge or other catastrophe world.