Anne Diestelkamp
cultural programmer, artistic researcher/ editor and translator
Collective Reading
Mediamatic
Amsterdam
2026
On July 24, we gathered for a collective, multi-sensory reading of Dutch poet and artist Miek Zwamborn’s Seaweed Collector’s Handbook, a blend of memoir, coastal observation and recipe collection. Zwamborn walked the shorelines of the Scottish coast where she encountered various weeds of the sea: pepper dulse, sea lettuce, bladderwrack. Her handbook is a poetic reflection about the history of botanical collection, marine ecologies and the cultural histories of seaweed across the globe.
We read together, we drank seaweed tea and had seaweed shortbread. We talked about the erotics of seaweed and the monstrosity of it. We talked about mermaids and witches, about those languages that don’t have a word for seaweed and those that have beautiful words to describe it.
Talks and Workshops
As part of FUTURE GARDENING @ SOIL ASSEMBLY
Zone2Source
Amsterdam
2026
For the international Soil Assembly, Alice Smits from Zone2Source and I organized Future Gardening – a weekend event in Zone2Source’s two artist gardens, run by artist collectives de Onkruidenier and Genomic Gastronomy. The final closing event of the weekend was a Gardener’s Assembly which brought together artists, community and activist gardeners alike—those who work with soil and wish to exchange experiences with like-minded practitioners. During the afternoon, we shared stories from a wide range of gardens: nomadic, community, artist-run, urban, activist, rooftop, and more.
Participants were invited to bring something – a tool, a seed, a leave – and a handful of soil from their garden as a starting point for storytelling.
During the course of the gardener’s assembly, artist-educator Dana Wait facilitated a chromatography workshop to make soil portraits of different gardens across Amsterdam – a scientific process used to assess the health of soil samples.
Together, we discussed the challenges, practices, and experiences of gardening—as both community work and artistic research—and concluded with a circle discussion to explore the future of this emerging gardening network.
Workshop by artist collective Genomic Gastronomy
As part of FUTURE GARDENING @ SOIL ASSEMBLY
Zone2Source
Amsterdam
2026
For the international Soil Assembly, Alice Smits from Zone2Source and I organized Future Gardening – a weekend event in Zone2Source’s two artist gardens, run by artist collectives de Onkruidenier and Genomic Gastronomy. The peak of the weekend was a Gardener’s Assembly for gardeners and artists who work with gardens across Amsterdam.
The Gardener’s Assembly began with a workshop by the artist collective Genomic Gastronomy in their artist garden, where they explore the technologies and ecologies of human food systems. During the workshop, hosted by Zack Denfield and Cathrine Kramer from the Genomic Gastronomy collective, we harvested and tasted dozens of plants from the Extreme Salad Garden. Using slow observation and custom software, we documented the late-spring edible biodiversity and the garden’s current soil cycles.
Workshop
Zone2Source, Shadow Garden, Amstelpark
Amsterdam
2026
As part of the program ON NOCTURNAL ECOLOGIES at Zone2Source, de Onkruidenier and I invited participants to become night-pollinators for one night. We traced the scent trails of moths, the light pollution that distracts them on their nocturnal hunt for food and developped a map of night-blooming plants that provide nectar for moths and other nocturnal pollinators.
Collective Reading
Zone2Source, Shadow Garden, Amstelpark
Amsterdam
2026
„The underworlds, the realm of darkness, is the huge planet that lies under our feet, in the soil, behind that curtain that we perceive as „ground“, populated by micro inhabitants that are shaped by the same forces that shape the macrocosm.“ – Beatrice Zerbato,
A collective reading about darkness, soil and nocturnal ecologies in the garden of The Onkruidenier in Amstelpark. As the sun goes down, we read different texts by writers such as Anaïs Tondeur, Germain Meulemans and Beatrice Zerbato to delve into the intricate relationship between the ground and the sky, between darkness and the underground.
The Perennial Reading Group is a nomadic, ongoing gathering for those drawn to sharing plant wisdom—eco-feminists, gardeners, cross-pollinators, and all who feel kinship with the more-than-human world.
Collective Reading, Talks and Workshops
Zone2Source, Shadow Garden, Amstelpark
Amsterdam
2026
On the night before the full moon, we gathered in the Shadow Garden at Amstelpark cared for and hosted by artist collective the Onkruidenier for a program dedicated to nocturnal ecologies. What happens in the garden after dark? How does the moon influence the soil and the life it sustains?
The evening began with a collective reading. As the sun was setting, we read texts by Anaïs Tondeur, Germain Meulemans, and Beatrice Zerbato that explored the complex relationships between soil and atmosphere, darkness and the underground. The reading was followed by a a food intervention by Chen Zou, who engaged participants in her artistic research on darkness and the invisible underground. As night fell, Jonmar van Vlijmen (de Onkruidenier) and I invited participants into a discussion about the garden at night and shared our explorations on nocturnal gardening. The conversation gradually transitioned into a hands-on workshop on night pollination. Together, we developped a map of night-blooming plants and sources of nectar for moths and other nocturnal pollinators.
Collective Reading
Fruituin van West, as part of Reclaim the Seeds
Amsterdam
2026
A collective reading about the tiny powerhouses that sustain forests, feed civilizations, and quietly rule the planet. The Triumph of Seeds by Thor Hanson celebrates how seeds shape the cosmos and our daily lives more than we ever realize, how seeds evolved, how they travel, and how they became central to ecosystems, agriculture, and human culture. Texts will be provided. No preparation necessary.
The Perennial Reading Group is a nomadic, ongoing gathering for those drawn to sharing plant wisdom—eco-feminists, gardeners, cross-pollinators, and all who feel kinship with the more-than-human world.
Workshop
I Can Change the World With My Two Hands
Amsterdam
2026
On January 25th, 2026 gathered at the garden of I Can Change the World With My Two Hands to delve into the depths of darkness together. In darkness, we lose sight—the sense we most rely on to feel oriented and safe. Darkness is often framed as something to fear, associated with uncertainty and suffering. And yet, it is in darkness that life begins and wisdom takes root: in the womb, in the soil, and in dreams.
In this workshop, Chen Zhou and I invited others to gather in darkness with us—to sense it, reflect on it, and stay with it. The afternoon began with researcher Chen Zhou, who shared ancient knowledge from Traditional Chinese Medicine on winter practices, including the nourishment of life through black foods and the conservation of yin energy. We read about darkness together and shared black and root foods as a sensory practice. In the second part of the workshop, I shared some of my early research into the nocturnal garden and invited participants on a tour of the garden in the dark. Together, we explored how perception shifts and how senses and worlds become reversed as the garden moves from day into night.
Collective Reading
The Garden Above the School, Amsterdam Dance Academy
Amsterdam
2026
In the middle of winter, at the turning of the calendar year, we gathered at The Garden Above the School on the rooftop of the Amsterdam Dance Academy to read together from Soils Turn – A Field Guide to Artistic Earthly Engagements. Edited by Alexandra R. Toland and Patricia L. Watts and published in late 2025, Soils Turn brings together stories and practices that work with soil—its materials, histories, places, and living communities. The collective reading took us through the event and through the garden: In the middle of winter rest, we worked on the community compost, tended the soil and prepared it for spring.
The Perennial Reading Group is a nomadic, ongoing gathering for those drawn to sharing plant wisdom—eco-feminists, gardeners, cross-pollinators, and all who feel kinship with the more-than-human world. We come together to read books that sharpen and expand these commitments. The Perennial Reading Group meets up irregularly and unpredictably.
Physical Introduction
When You Whistle, It Makes Air Come Out
Maryna Makarenko
Kunstmuseum Bonn, Germany
As part of VIDEONALE.20 – Festival for video and time-based arts
2025
When You Whistle, It Makes Air Come Out. Torfs’ installation, whose rhythm is determined by the sound of her own breath, is based on the studies of Swiss psychologist Piaget on children’s understanding of cause and effect. The children’s surprising responses to questions such as “Where does the wind come from?” appear as text in an old lightbox.
📷 Jo Hempel
Performance
Mark Bain
Trinkpavillon Bad-Godesberg, Bonn, Germany
As part of VIDEONALE.20 – Festival for video and time-based arts
2025
Since the late 1990s, Mark Bain has been investigating the vibrations of buildings and their material properties, using sound waves that often lie below the threshold of perception. In his sound works, these waves function like an invisible object that the audience can physically feel. These projects grew out of Bain’s research on the relationship between the human body’s resonant frequency and architecture, conducted as part of his dissertation at MIT in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Bain is fascinated by unique spaces and architectures, and by the ways different materials produce sound. Like a musical instrument, buildings come in different shapes, sizes, and materials, all of which shape how sound waves behave.
Bain himself describes his sound performances as a “soundbath.” For the opening of VIDEONALE.20, my colleagues Annette Ziegert, Tasja Langenbach, and I invited the audience to experience a soundbath in the Bad Godesberg drinking pavilion, where the body is enveloped like a tangible sound sculpture. The site has a long history: a healing spring, the Kurfürstenquelle, was drilled here in 1962, and in 1969/70 a cubic pavilion was built, which has since served as a place for serving its healing waters.
📷 Jo Hempel