Folklore & Critical Research

Folklore & Critical Research

Curated by Marjolein van der Loo

A Tree, with a Bird, by a Woman, on Land, Under a Star, is a recipe or a spell with exit points that become chapters and grow into their own ecology of stories and actors. Together, they form a composition, a picture, or a tarot card that tells about the future and the past or an insight, warning, or recipe for now.

This research series, with exhibitions, workshops, publications, and events, includes folklore and critical research, an apparent contradiction here as a rich encounter. Science and intuition come together, enter into conversation, and question each other, from hard figures to spirituality. Ecofeminism is an angle with which the themes are approached, a critical philosophy that sees connections between the oppression of ecology and women and strives for their joint emancipation. Social and ecological issues are therefore examined in a complex and holistic manner. In addition, the series takes into account the development of partnerships between art and science as an advisor. Thinkers important for the foundation and shaping of this thinking include Donna Haraway, Anna Tsing, Ursula K. le Guin, and Vandana Shiva.

The series continually addresses themes that explore the connection between people and their environment, relationships, and responsibility through empathy, imagination, humor, and senses. Each topic raises questions where the roots of the theme of recurring issues surrounding culture, policy, identity, and faith are addressed between makers and audiences.

Image: ‘Más vale pájaro en mano que cien volando’ by Sergio Rojas Chaves

About Marjolein van der Loo

Marjolein van der Loo is an interdisciplinary researcher whose practice moves between curatorial, editorial, artistic, and pedagogical work. The projects she initiates arise from a passion for ecology and have a feminist approach and social agenda.

In 2021 and 2022, she was an artist in residence at Arcus Project in Japan, where she created and published the book Katsura Hito with Handsaw Press Tokyo. Marjolein is co-editor of the 2023 volume Enfleshed, on Ecologies of Entities and Beings published by Onomatopee, where she curated the exhibition Shallow Waters in 2021 and Re-Assembling Motherhoods in 2022.

In 2023, she was curator in residence at ZERO Foundation in Düsseldorf, initiated the Dutch-Japanese exchange program Book&Space with Limestone Books, and became chair of the Thinking Forest Foundation.

Marjolein is a teacher at the Interdisciplinary Arts program at Maastricht Institute of Arts and researches themes from South Limburg history from an eco-feminist perspective with support from the Mondriaan Fund.

Marjolein completed her Fine Art and Design Teacher program at the Maastricht Academy of Visual Arts, a Bachelor’s degree in Art History at the University of Utrecht, and obtained her Master’s degree in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art at Aalto University in Finland.