With ‘two left hands’, we explore not in spite of, but precisely because of our shortcomings – as ‘speculative fabulation’.

To perceive these patches of ground, we shift our perspective: away from the upright, human viewpoint, towards a perspective from the ground itself. It is no longer the human who ‘scans’ the landscape – rather, the ground itself seems to be looking. It sees itself, the plants, the grass, the tarmac and the sky. It also sees the awkward human figure trying to form a picture: dragging a plastic bottle with a camera behind them, wearing loafers fitted with microphones.

Scientists such as Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing work with the concept of ‘patches’ – small-scale areas where global processes unfold unevenly yet remain intertwined. The Anthropocene thus appears not as a homogeneous epoch, but as a patchwork: sites of industrial agriculture, spoil heaps, remnant forests, resource exploitation, cities, islands of wilderness and much more. These patches are connected, but never identical. At the same time, they open up niches and habitats – for plants, animals and also for humans.

Next to the orchard meadow leased by Sandra van den Beuken and Stefan Cools, various compressed landscape patches converge. Diverse uses –  motorway, production forest, landfill, and airport in direct proximity – condense into heterogeneous landscapes within a very limited space. 

We brought the footage from the four locations we explored to the orchard meadow and placed it in the soil there – approaching the moving images as if they were a symbolic campfire, around which we release the ‘genie from the bottle’. Perhaps we can find a little warmth in this: in asking questions together, where there are no easy answers.

At the center of our project is perception: the attempt to develop another way of describing what surrounds us. We search – deliberately awkward, fumbling, ungainly – for new gazes that do not look at landscapes but emerge from them. 

To perceive these soil patches, we shift perspective: away from the upright, human-centered view and towards a perspective from within the ground itself. It is no longer the human who “observes” the landscape – rather, the soil itself looks. It sees itself, the plants, grasses, asphalt, the sky. It sees also the clumsy human figure, attempting to make sense: dragging a PET bottle with camera behind, stepping forward in loafers fitted with microphones. 

Soil Patches of Frauke Berg und Oliver Gather is curated by Celien Govaerts, Bonnefanten Maastricht, Stephan Cools, and Sandra van den Beuken, Butterfly House Foundation, as part of the festival Blunderen – the art of failure in the face of ecosystem breakdown. 2025-2026.