Laying the Ginkgo to Rest in Frederiksoord, Drenthe

On May 3rd, potgrond (Nina Litsios and Ronja Kops) invited the Critical Pathways community to lay the ginkgo to rest within Frederiksoord, Drenthe. The event was made possible by the Critical Pathways Community and DE PROEF.

The event encompassed three parts: perfomances, an exhibition and a workshop. The story of the ginkgo tree was told and two poems were performed, after which a song and an interpretive dance  were shared. 

The exhibition blurred the boundaries between indoor and outdoor spaces, starting at the entrance of the garden and making its way to Het Stookhuis, where one room was dedicated to the ginkgo tree and another to a piece called ontworteld (uprooted). After exiting Het Stookhuis, the visitors were led to tables with very large sheets of paper and drawing materials. There, a host explained the workshop to them and they were sent off into the gardens.

The workshop entailed walking through the gardens, finding a non-human being that appeals to you, sitting with it and thinking about why it speaks to you.

What would you name it, and why?

Then, the participants were invited to come back to the tables and shortly research the non-human being that they found on their phone. What is the dominant narrative about this being online? After reflecting on this for a short while, they creatively expressed the tensions that emerged.