On 11 July, the kick-off took place of cultural project Imaged Stories, a collaboration between Camille Oostwegel ChâteauHotels & -Restaurants, Marres Projects and Bureau Europa. This project focuses on the history of the WinselerHof farmstead in Landgraaf. In the month of August, artists and designers create art interventions that specifically refer to the place and that fit in with the existing cultural heritage (and landscape values). The four artists, Kim Bouvy, Hans Engelbrecht, Chris Kabel and Astrid Mingels, will realize their plans at WinselerHof during a work week at the beginning of August. In the week of 12 August, the results will be presented during a cultural tour, organized by Camille Oostwegel ChâteauHotels & -Restaurants.
On Sunday 11 August, prior to the actual cultural tour, interested parties can visit the artists from 12:00 to 17:00 as they put the finishing touches to their work in WinselerHof.
From September through November 2013, Marres Projects and Bureau Europa offer a (research) internship for three bachelor or master students.
Marres Projects, Bureau Europa and Camille Oostwegel ChâteauHotels &-Restaurants have teamed up to form a cultural research partnership. This project is called ‘Imaged Stories’ and focuses primarily on the history of the WinselerHof estate in Landgraaf, a 16th century farmstead that has been completely restored and furnished as a hotel and restaurant by Camille Oostwegel since 1985.
The history of this place will be analyzed with the help of student research. The results of this research phase will be point of departure for a group of artists, designers, philosophers, and historians, who will work with the history and the landscape values of the building and the surrounding area.
We are looking for students with an interest in historic research and affinity with the subject of cultural heritage and the region.
Your letter of motivation and curriculum vitae can be sent to Pieternel Fleskens until 1 August 2013.
Imaged Stories was launched in August 2013. Four artists and designers were invited to stay for a week on the WinselerHof estate and to work on a visual intervention in its grounds. It was decided to establish a diverse group of participants that can motivate and inspire each other and, at the same time, have its own signature. Eventually, the following participants were selected: Astrid Mingels (artist), Kim Bouvy (artist, photographer, educator), Chris Kabel (designer) and Hans Engelbrecht (ecological gardener and director of de Groene Stap). The participants all have different backgrounds and approaches; as such, all four developed their ideas from a different perspective. The final results were presented from 12th August in the form of a Culture tour organized by Camille Oostwegel Chateau Hotels & Restaurants.
A brief description of the individual art interventions:
Astrid Mingels, (1987, Maastricht)
Visual artist
The cinematic research of Astrid Mingels reflects on the interior and the immediate vicinity of the WinselerHof and raises questions about notions of authenticity and appropriation. The recent restoration of the entrance to the WinselerHof estate returned the gates back to their original historic blue colour. A colour, however, that turned out to be not even a year old. What began as a quest for the origin of the paint, resulted in viewing and analysing traces of an eclectic mix of migrated images and objects: land maps, photographic Italian impressions, and artefacts of farm life in Limburg.
In her (video) collage, Mingels appropriates images and objects in an associative way, which she combines with a voice-over by an African woman who reads, in English, (Art) theoretical texts by Rosalind Krauss and Jan Verwoert. This Zimbabwean lady gave a sculpture workshop 'Afrika Anders' (in Dutch, a play on the word 'Afrikaanders', natives of Africa, and 'anders', other) in the nearby Overste Hof estate and hotel in Landgraaf. The texts address topics such as the role of the avant-garde in art, appropriation, the structure of the grid, originality, rehearsal, and representation.
Kim Bouvy, (1974, Amsterdam)
Visual artist, photographer, educator
Kim Bouvy's photo series examines our presumptions in relation to the appearance of the surrounding landscape. In her photographic series of the lush and idyllic nature, an undercurrent of tension exists. In many places, the green ground cover conceals traces of the mining history that characterises the landscape of Central Limburg. As part of her research, she consulted the Limburg Regional Historical Centre archives and old DSM calendars to gain an insight into what once was. This translated into a visual analysis where she zoomed out from the WinselerHof estate to its immediate vicinity. She animates her series by interweaving images of 'real' nature with pictures of nearby large-scale scenic recreational areas, such as botanical gardens, Snow World, Gaia Zoo, and the Mondo Verde World Gardens. Parks seemingly imbued with a particular history, but in terms of meaning they appear to completely ignore such histories. The remains of what was once a landscape of production are transformed into carriers of a new identity, becoming what could be described as style rooms of the new nature. As such, she puts our perceptions and symbolism of nature under the microscope and shows, in a poetic way, the relations and contradictions between constructed, cultivated vegetation and real nature.
Chris Kabel (1975, Bloemendaal)
Designer
Chris Kabel's design connects a public path with the farm's garden, the recently constructed vines, and the rest of the estate's 5 hectares of acquired land. His 'poles' are an alternative partition and replace the existing barbed wire enclosure fence. The poles also indicate that the visitor is located on the WinselerHof Estate—a public private property.
On closer examination, the poles turn out to be made from tool handles once used in the mines: picks, shovels, axes, etc. In a nearby business workshop, Kabel found a machine that mills these handles using 'archetypes' from an archive of dozens of original tools. In the same way a door key is duplicated, this machine also follows the form of the original to arrive at a reproduction. With the disappearance of the mining industry, the craft of milling these handles has also disappeared. The company Kabel worked with has been able to continue by producing pallets. Along the path of WinselerHof we see markers made of utility objects whose "functional" iron part is buried. In this way, Kabel captures a slice of local history in a poetic metaphor.
Hans Engelbrecht (1969)
Ecological gardener, director of De Groene Stap
Ecological gardener Hans Engelbrecht, focused on several areas of the estate. The mowing pattern on the upper parts aims to enable original vegetation to return and provide the foundation for a pagoda. He also opened up a dense, overgrown area of forest that once blocked the view of the pond. The pond was a product of an employment project in the 1930s and now gives an idyllic allure to the estate. A cleared path to the pond will be constructed using brick remnants from the former bakery, which burnt down and is now in ruins. Clearing the area revealed the swimming pool of the former gentleman farmer and the Strijthager stream. The surplus material stays on the estate, functioning as natural ramparts and an insect hotel.
A branch of an old hazel tree was about to collapse under its own weight but was suspended by Engelbrecht 'to a healthier part of itself'. In doing so, a romantic getaway for two was created, which, in collaboration with designer Chris Kabel, was transformed into a bench and unusual side table.
The participants had limited preparation time for the project, making them especially inspired by the place and environment. The commissions launch the next phase of the project, beginning in autumn 2013. This subsequent research phase is organised in cooperation with Maastricht University (Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences). By making the connection with a research institute, this stage will map, in various ways, the narrative and actual history of the WinselerHof and the region. The students' focus will include the history of the monument, the owner and user, the environment (and its fragmented programming), natural and landscape values, and the region's stories from its agricultural and mining past. The outcomes will be translated into artistic and cultural projects in the next phase of the project.
