UNRIVALED SURPRISING TRIP THROUGH THE WILDERNESS OF GRONINGEN(Kester Freriks in de Theaterkrant)
The New Anthropological Institute of the Netherlands (NAIN) proudly welcomes you to Wildpark De Pionier. What was once known as a wing region has today been declared uninhabitable. Only those whom we have come to call The Free People have managed to build a life here again. Enter our visitor center and enrich yourself with knowledge about the park and the people who live there.
Take a good look around you because you are about the last to see these trees, this greenery, this water. The Vloeivelden will transform into a residential area and free people will then have to look for a new habitat.
Note: you walk this walk of just over an hour one at a time (a few minutes at a time) and finally a tip: put on sturdy shoes, you enter the wilderness and it is far from polished.
Wildpark de Pionier is an adventurous voyage of discovery through the various cycles of colonisation, flourishing and decay in the past, present and future of the flow fields of the former Cooperative Sugar Factory in Groningen. This area was left undisturbed for years after the closure and demolition of the factory, so that pioneer species and people had free rein and a special area was created. In the coming years, the flow fields will be developed into the Suikerzijde, a new district of the city of Groningen.
With Wildpark de Pionier we mark this transition in which one kind of pioneers will soon be outcompeted by the other. But are pioneers always doomed to disappear, or do they live hidden in subsequent generations to emerge when circumstances require it?
Wildpark de Pionier is an experiment to merge environment, theatre, augmented reality and music in an equal way to make the different layers of reality visible, audible and tangible.
Wildpark de Pionier is being developed by Floris Maathuis and Chantalla Pleiter in collaboration with Bram Esser, Happyship studio and PM ‘O Sullivan. These creative makers have previously worked in various mutual combinations on projects that stretch and connect the boundaries between the various disciplines.
Floris Maathuis Concept, artistic lead
Chantalla Pleiter Concept, artictic direction
Bram Esser Concept, text
Happyship studio 3D design
PM ‘O Sullivan Compositions, sound design
Wildpark de Pionier has been made possible by:
Kickstart Cultuurfonds
Kunstraad Groningen
Terra/Suikerterrein
Noorderzon Festival of Performing Arts
De Suikerzijde
