Vruchtbare Grond: Day 5

What does it mean to belong somewhere? Is it a physical place, a memory, a dish, a scent or a feeling deep inside? 'A Sense of Belonging' explores the layers of identity, connection and the search for a home —both literally and figuratively.

During Vruchtbare Grond festival young creators dive into this theme. Expect an inspiring blend of theatre, visual arts, music, food, gatherings, dancing and more…

Expo ‘A Sense of Belonging’
16 - 22h

with LAMIA, Achraf Saadi, Oscar Houlis, Donald Huycke, Rock star and Palm tree, Elvy Tremor, Megan Briggs, Anna Sarkisova, the young people of Boslabs

LAMIA | Blue flowers don’t exist

I’m a flower obsessed, mixed media artist.
During floral school I learned how ancient Egyptian florals mixed with the style of the 1920s, and this 20’s style resurfaced in the 50’s and 60s.
After King Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered, Egyptian motifs like the lotus became popular, blending with the bold, geometric vibes of the Jazz Age.
I became obsessed with this lost flower style and decided to build an expo around it.
Picture two friends getting ready together back in the day, sipping atay, eating sweets, surrounded by art, beautiful flower arrangements and fresh fruit.
My teacher told me that blue flowers don’t exist/ it’s an optical illusion, which inspired the title and references to the ‘blue’ lotus.

OSCAR HOULIS | KOPFKINO

French American art photographer Oscar Houlis has recently made Antwerp his home, bringing with him a lens tuned to the quiet strangeness of everyday life. His new series, soon to be shown at Het Bos, drifts through layers of reality found in reflections, shadows, and small, deliberate props. Inspired by surrealism and the mood of cinematic street photography, Houlis captures moments that feel both familiar and uncanny, like stills from a forgotten dream. His images speak in whispers, full of atmosphere and pause, where light, gesture, and space seem to choreograph themselves. Influenced by the dream logic of Lynch and the quiet poetry of Wong Kar-wai, Houlis invites us to step sideways into a world where reality softens and begins to slip. Alongside the series, he will also showcase a new collage piece that plays with layers in a more tactile, assembled way, echoing the themes of fragmentation and hidden meaning found throughout his photographic work.

DONALD HUYCKE | Funkytown

Anderhalf jaar geleden studeerde ik af als interieurvormgever aan Sint Lucas in Brussel. Tijdens en na mijn opleiding verdiepte ik me in architectuur, scenografie, meubels en installaties. Samen met vrienden organiseer ik artistieke evenementen onder het collectief “de grote boodschap”, waarin muziek centraal staat, aangevuld met performances en installaties. Daarnaast presenteer ik samen met Leo Mendel het tweewekelijkse radioprogramma “de Mendelelf” op Radio Centraal.

Ik heb een sterke interesse in skaten, kleding en gadgets, wat ik tot uiting breng via mijn merk Karbonkel Industries.Spellen fascineren me enorm – tijdens mijn opleiding ontwierp ik een eigen versie van het hamertjesspel, en sindsdien heb ik verschillende speelse projecten gerealiseerd, zoals een dag vol volksspelen en een nieuwe versie van eendjes vissen. In de toekomst wil ik het speelgedrag van de mens verder blijven onderzoeken.

Er wordt gespeeld in Antwerpen voor Vruchtbare Grond, een gezonde reactie op de individualisatie in de openbare ruimte. Doe mee of kijk later, het programma luidt als volgt:

• Hinkelpret: Een dag vol krijt en kleur om de opkomst van een zeeeer lang hinkelpad te vieren. Het zuid en het noord van Antwerpen worden op zaterdag 10 mei verbonden. Alle teken- en speeltechnieken welkom!
• A Velo Action: Een nieuwe uitvinding, de samensmelting van twee objecten die niets met elkaar te maken hebben resulteert in een nieuwe functie die er nog minder te maken mee heeft. 10 exemplaren beschikbaar voor gebruik.
• Goodbye horses: Probeer het karton op straat even niet meer te zien als afval, blaas er wat leven in!

ROCK STAR AND PALM TREE | Hsiao-Hsi and Wout jumped off a cliff

Hsiao-Hsi and Wout jumped off a cliff.
A rockstar rocks alone. A palm tree stands unused. Do they still exist, then?
Is it the one who fails to achieve that fails to exist,
or the one whose fate remains unknown?

Hsiao-Hsi wants to be a palm tree.
Wout wants to be a rockstar.
In water, they become what they want to be —
but without an audience, without the right habitat.

What a sad story.

So, who’s that damn rockstar and that damn palm tree?
No one sees them.
They don’t exist.

ELVY TREMOR | What Lies in the Puddle

Born from a friendship of over 10 years, the duo Elvy Tremor emerged from the artistic convergence of Léonore Bienert and Valentine Jolibois. Based in Brussels, they joined forces after their master's in La Cambre to create multi-media artworks and experienceable installations. E.T.’s varied artistic practices are coordinated to develop complex multi-support installations. No more borders between the artworks and their displays: pedestals and frames are sculptures, and paintings on canvas become patterns on a wall. By blurring the line between object and sculpture, art and experience, music and alternative narration, E.T. invites you to consider the total hybridity of artwork as a remedy to the external world's rigidity.

For Vruchtbare Grond Festival, they display « What Lies in the Puddle » (2025), a multi-sensory installation playing around the representations of fairytales’ worlds. Fiction provides refuge, and, nowadays, picturing a world unspoiled by humans can feel as fantastical as a princess turning into a frog. The exhibition space changes into a shimmering pond with oversized lily pads to sit on, sculptural paintings to drift into, and a dragon breaching the walls with whispers in its throat. E.T. invites you to take a seat, listen to the dragon’s song, enjoy the landscape, and decide: Will you stay in the story, or look beneath and see what lies in the puddle?

MEGAN BRIGGS

Megan Briggs (they/she) is an American poet and video artist based in Antwerp, Belgium. Country Gleams is a collection of poem-videos exploring themes of home, belonging, and identity within suspended placelessness. In weaving together poetry, film, and candid field recordings from Michigan to Antwerp, this video installation presents an intimate portrait of the artist through brief glimpses of light and sound. The artist is often both narrator and subject, employing a surreal visual poetics to consider new ways of engaging with poetry. Each work in Country Gleams is rooted in a deep respect for the land and the privilege and complication of calling any place ‘home’.

BOSLABS

Boslabs, het creatieve atelier van Het Bos, brengt jongeren, kunstenaars en vrijwilligers met diverse achtergronden samen. Ontmoeting en uitwisseling staan centraal. Boslabs Broadcast toont de eerste resultaten van een jaar vol beeldende, muzikale en creatieve workshops – van schilderen en tekenen tot radio, textiel en gastateliers rond o.a. fotografie, koken en film. Boslabs is een ruimte voor jongeren, een plek om naar terug te komen. Tijdens Boslabs Broadcast brengen we het beste wat in ons zit, naar buiten! Tijdens deze expo tonen we eerste resultaten van deze workshops.

ANNA SARKISOVA

My name is Anna Sarkisova. I am a graphic designer and visual artist working with translation and collaging, typesetting, and performance. My artistic work is often bilingual — I mingle between Russian and English, defining my space of belonging and negotiating meaning where languages overlap. I grew up in Moscow, at a time when theatre and dramaturgy were thriving art forms there, which deeply influenced my artistic interests. In the long term, I am exploring how graphic design and stage arts could coexist fruitfully.

In the context of Vruchtbare Grond, I present 0,5 citizen — a publication accompanied by a reading. 0,5 citizen compiles five poems written between winter 2024 and spring 2025. Working on these texts became a way to live through draining, unjust times: documenting the opinions of those affected — or distorted — by Russian propaganda, attempting to define love in the post-Soviet context, and holding together my native home in Moscow with my current one in Antwerp.