In 2023 Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen and TXT, the tex­tile de­part­ment of the Gerrit Ri­etveld Acad­emie in Amsterdam, started a ed­u­ca­tional col­lab­o­ra­tion. As part of this the three years of TXT stu­dents will take over the Kunstfort, and take charge. They pre­sent their ideas during a public pro­gramme on Sat­urday May 13th, starting at 13:00h. On that same af­ter­noon at the Kunstfort, Alaa Abu Asad, artist re­searcher and Fellow at the Gerrit Ri­etveld Acad­e­mie’s lec­torate, will give a lec­ture en­ti­tled: “In the ab­sence of the in­va­sive: Can we fi­nally look at the Japanese Knotweed as a green fu­ture com­panion?” Also, the De­part­ment of Graphic De­sign and Public Ri­etveld & Pro­jects will pre­sent a pub­li­ca­tion high­lighting the col­lab­o­ra­tion, the re­search process and out­comes. See below for the de­tailed pro­gramme schedule. The stu­dents’ works will be on show up to (Pen­ta­cost) Monday May 29th.

On Sunday May 28th Dariya Tru­bina of­fers boat trips on the wa­ters of the Kunstfort at 13:00, 14:00, 15:00 and 16:00. Re­serve a timeslot via info@kunstfort.nl, one person per timeslot.

Some works re­volve around the his­tory of the Kunstfort and con­nec­tions to colo­nial times. For ex­ample, the ar­chi­tec­ture of the fort is ex­plored, as well as its con­nec­tion to ob­so­lete mud shel­ters, queer­ness and piracy. Also, stu­dents have ex­am­ined the In­done­sian Wayang kulit form of pup­petry and cabaret art and its re­la­tion­ship to leisure and en­ter­tain­ment during wartime; as well as al­ter­na­tive and mul­tiple iden­ti­ties from a ‘mil­i­tary’ per­spec­tive. Col­lec­tive cooking ses­sions with local ed­ible plants will serve as a way for colo­nial his­to­ries to un­fold while taking a po­lit­ical stand.

Other stu­dents dove into the var­ious human and non-human com­mu­ni­ties and ecolo­gies around Kunstfort, using local flora to create col­lec­tive gath­er­ings, dried plants for sculp­tural pieces and dug up soil and pumped up water as el­e­ments for making fluid refuge and grounding rit­uals. The stu­dents will also ex­amine the agri­cul­tural land­scape sur­rounding Kunstfort, as well as noise pol­lu­tion and how this im­pacts the en­vi­ron­ment.

Again other stu­dents fo­cused on tex­tile tech­niques and writing as tools for sto­ry­telling and change. Join them for a boat ride around the fort, have con­ver­sa­tions while weaving and knot­ting willow branches or shave old gar­ments in com­munal work­shops. Also pay at­ten­tion to nooks and cran­nies in the building waiting to be filled up with fic­tional sto­ries and new re­al­i­ties.

Par­tic­i­pating stu­dents: Lian Bi, Nanna-Lucie Bre­gen­dahl-Ax­il­gård, Rosa van Burik, Julia De Mar­tino, Lou Elie dit Cosaque, Emma van Herk, Hanna IJs­sel­stein Mulder, Adèle Josse, Anna Klas, Freja Kris­tiansen, Sojin Lee, Chichy Obi, Carl-Johan Paulsen, Aimée Phillips, Sterre Pomper, So­phie Dan­danell, Au­drey Ristawati, Olivia de Ruiter, Kristina Schädler, Hannah Smith, Dariya Tru­bina, Caro de Valk, Luis Weber, Marie-So­phie Will­fort, On­dine Williams, Jule Wolfs, Nikola Woud­stra.

At the TXT de­part­ment, the re­la­tion­ship be­tween ma­te­ri­ality and the written word is ex­am­ined from var­ious per­spec­tives. Theory, phi­los­ophy, reading and (cre­ative) writing play an im­por­tant role in map­ping the his­tor­ical, aes­thetic, so­cial, po­lit­ical and ma­te­rial value of tex­tiles. This can re­sult in new ma­te­rials, au­tonomous work or so­cially com­mitted state­ments in the form of an essay, lec­ture, pub­li­ca­tion, per­for­mance or in­ter­ven­tion in public space.

Through this col­lab­o­ra­tion, Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen and TXT en­able stu­dents to create and show work out­side the academy and be in­formed and in­spired by the ecology, her­itage and people on and around the fort, and the ques­tions and is­sues that these raise.