During my residency at Brunakra, I will start up a new project: The Maize Human Saves the Nature. The Maize Human, an alter ego, seeks to explore how she can contribute to combating the climate crisis. She looks for inspiration into historical approaches from the 1970s, such as the publication Limits to Growth from the Club of Rome (published in more than 30 languages), as well as the rise of activist environmental movements.

Ultimately, she embraces a traditional art form: figurative landscape painting. By capturing nature on a canvas, she will save the world. Over an extended period, the Maize Human will paint in various natural landscapes while staying at artist residencies. During these residencies, she will engage with the local nature as well as with the local community through workshops and shared experiences. The culmination of this artistic research will take the form of a museum installation: of a graphic mural that refers to the historical research, the paintings and a collection of international publications from the Club of Rome, gathered throughout the project. The installation will be accompanied by performances in which the Maize Human cares for plants, rearranges paintings, and blends historical texts and quotes from conversations and encounters in nature, into song, spoken word and movement.

This project arises from a sense of powerlessness. Through it, I will reflect on how we grapple with the painful reality that the Earth is on the brink of destruction due to our actions, should we persist on this path. It raises the fundamental question: why, despite the urgency of the situation, do we often fail to act? Can we, as humans, truly bring about meaningful change, or are we overestimating our abilities?
The residency at the Brunakra Project marks the kick off of this long-term endeavor. It is here that I will begin to shape the project’s contours. In collaboration with the local residents of Simrishamn, I will explore the possibilities for exchange, culminating in a final interactive performance at Brunakra.

I am a visual artist based in Amsterdam (the Netherlands), and I have a multidisciplinary artistic practice in collaboration with Domenico Mangano. As part of this practice I create performances that are integral to spatial installations. I weave together costume, text, song, movement, and direct interaction with the audience. Connection is at the heart of my work, and I focus on socio-political themes. My projects begin with a personal issue that highlights a microhistory, which I then connect to bigger themes from recent history and actuality. Play, irony, and improvisation are key words of my working method.

See: www.manganovanrooy.com