Ruth Ruijgers is a poet and organizer with a theater background. In her work, she explores what it means to meet something or someone, the relationship between environment and individual, and the actual consequences of asking such questions. Her poems operate on the boundary lines between the societal and the personal.
Together with a team, Ruth organizes the monthly literary platform Natte Neuzen, where established and new talent perform. She teaches poetry at the Schrijversvakschool in Groningen. She has previously performed at events such as Noorderzon and Dichters in de Prinsentuin, published in Op Ruwe Planken, and served as resident poet of the University of Groningen.
Together with Olaf Visser, Ruth created a poetic dialogue and soundscape for ‘Dijk van een Wijf’
Olaf Visser (Groningen) writes poetry, gives recitals, and, as part of Natte Neuzen, organises a monthly poetry stage for both experienced and brand-new poets. He is interested in imagery, intimacy and strangeness, and explores perspectives that enable us to engage with the world. He has created music and soundscapes for various short films, including the eco-horror short film Water Witching. He also performs piano and spoken word as Vossa Vossa.
For Sense of Place, he collaborated with Ruth Ruijgers to create a poetic dialogue and soundscape for Dijk van een Wijf.
Leonard Witte is an artist and ceramist. Many of the pots, urns and other objects he makes from clay first take shape in drawings. They form, as it were, the material culture of a world that otherwise exists only on paper.
He draws inspiration for both form and theme from archaeological finds and historical imagery. He is fascinated by the fact that the world of our distant ancestors is so unimaginably different from our own. Through his work, he explores his relationship with an unknowable past.
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Chris Schoonenberg (they/those) is a theologian and philosopher who combines their practice with film, photography, and speculative fiction. After studying philosophy at KU Leuven, they trained as parish ministers at the Protestant Theological University in Groningen. The question of God in the Anthropocene is a central theme in their work. Christ seeks and explores unexpected encounters, connections between strangers—human, plant, and animal—and experiments with contemporary forms of community building. They work as a community worker for Diaconie in Stad en Mosterd in Groningen, are involved as an activist with the Christian Collective against genocide in Gaza, and are a board member of Kairos-Sabeel Netherlands. In all these areas, they dedicate themselves with love and passion to a more just and loving world.
Anjet’s work explores existential questions that arise from life itself: where do I belong, does hope have a shadow, what is the significance of solitude, and to what extent does a name define who we are. Often a question forms the starting point of her work; at other times it is the material itself that invites her to engage with it, allowing meaning to emerge gradually through the process.
Anjet mainly works with hand tools such as a hammer, mallet, chisel, and gouge. Her materials have taken time to form, and for that reason she works at a slow, attentive pace that encourages observation and focus. The physical contact between chisel and stone, gouge and wood, the destruction required to create, the irreversibility of each blow, and the marks left behind by the tools are all essential elements of her process.
The sculpture that slowly takes shape repeatedly invites her into a state of not-knowing: to pause, to observe, and to recognize what is already present.
Beth Wong (Hong Kong, 1998) her oeuvre is a collection of poetic fragments from her immediate surroundings. Wong is particularly interested in stories that are often overlooked and in materials from the urban fringe. She also explores the profound impact of her environment, especially in relation to adapting to a new country and the feeling of belonging. By combining painting with various media, she translates what she observes to offer an alternative interpretation of reality. Beth lives and works in Groningen.
Photo: Paul Meek
Rita Hoofwijk is a Dutch artist based between the Netherlands, Brussels, and the places her practice takes her. She works site-responsively and collaborates internationally with a range of partners in artistic and curatorial practice, grounding her work in a sensitive engagement with the environments in which it unfolds. This approach results in work spanning audio, text, spatial intervention, and performative formats—often engaging the body and sharing a hushed, immersive quality. Starting from the existing context of each place, she creates openings that animate the setting and reclaim attention for it.
“The openings Hoofwijk creates are like small cracks. With each of her works, it is as if she has put a wedge in the situation or as if she is lifting a corner of it.” Leonie Persyn (S:PAM, Ghent University)
She currently serves as artistic leader at SoAP – Space oriented Artistic Practice (Maastricht, NL).
Reindert Wepko (Ruud) van de Wint (1942-2006) retired to the old inland dune area of De Nollen in 1980, after leaving behind a career of exhibiting in European museums. De Nollen became his life’s work. Van de Wint is known for his paintings in the House of Representatives and ceiling paintings in Groningen City Hall and Queen Beatrix’s working palace, Paleis Noordeinde. He also created some thirty-five sculptures that are scattered throughout the Netherlands. In 2002, an exhibition of his work was organised at the Kröller-Müller Museum in Otterlo: R.W. van de Wint. Clair-obscur. Seven sculptures.
Susanne Luurs (1994) is a visual artist who explores the impact of human choices and actions on the Earth. With her graduation project The Clay Bath, she won the Art Education Award from Academie Minerva. Education plays an important role in her artistic practice. She actively involves her audience in her explorations through interactive installations and rituals. Her work questions the way we relate to nature. She creates performances, installations and paintings.