Did you know that besides ten iconic land artworks from the Flevoland collection, there are many more - mostly unknown - artworks in the province at the interface of nature and landscape? In the Hidden tour on Friday 13 June 2025, we will take you along ten other, almost invisible or hidden works of art. Works that you may have heard mythical stories about, but never seen, or didn't even know were still there. During the tour, we will also introduce you to another hidden gem; Kunst op de Bodem (Art down to Earth), a 1983 rediscovered film about land art.

Under the motto: “Shaping the Future by knowing your past,” we will search for some of these hidden artworks This fits in with the international programme Land Art Lives, in which we work together with Land Art Flevoland and partners on the future vision for land art in Flevoland and beyond. How can we preserve the artworks and connect them with other forms of land art in the province, in the Netherlands and internationally?

Programme

In this Hidden tour, together with the participants and a number of special guests, we will explore the artworks by Anne Mieke Backer, Roman Signer, Ulf Rollof, herman de vries, Krijn Giezen, Jacqueline Verhaagen and various other artists. What is still visible, what has disappeared, what were the thoughts behind the artworks, and who ensures the preservation or legacy of these artworks in Flevoland's landscape?

During lunch at De Verbeelding in Zeewolde, we will screen Kunst op de Bodem, (Art down to Earth) a 1983 film by filmmaker Kees Maaswinkel about land art. Het Flevolands Archief recently digitised the film and in preparing for this tour we “rediscovered” it. It is a film with unique footage by Piet Slegers, Krijn Giezen and Anne Mieke Backer, among others, that can be seen again for the first time in decades.

As the title says, during Hidden we will only visit unknown and more hidden works and therefore no landscape artworks from the Flevoland Collection. Want to visit those iconic land art? Then check out the bus tours and visitor information on the Land Art Flevoland site.

When, where, cost:

Friday, 13 June 2025 from 09.30 - 16.30 with afterwards (optional) the opening of the exhibition Ruum for land art at Jij Bent M. in Almere.
Start from the pavilion of M. in Hortus Almere (with excellent free parking) and an extra pick-up and drop-off point at NS station Almere Centrum.

Cost: €25 including the bus trip, a vegetarian lunch, film screening and drinks afterwards.

Buy a ticket for the Hidden tour now

The Hidden tour is aimed at (art) historians, artists, heritage specialists and anyone with an above-average interest in landscape art. It will be a very fun and intensive day where we ask participants to actively participate. We will travel by bus and stop regularly and take several walks through sometimes quite wild nature. Good shoes are recommended.

More background information on Land Art Lives' Hidden tour

On the road with past and future

During this special Land Art Lives discovery tour, we will explore together the history, backgrounds and possible future of land art in Flevoland. Between 2021 and 2024, four works from the Land Art Flevoland collection were restored: Observatorium (Robert Morris), De Groene Kathedraal (Marinus Boezem), Sea Level (Richard Serra) and Aardzee (Piet Slegers). Without these restorations, they would slowly fade or disappear. Piet Slegers' Aardzee, for instance, was losing its shape due to subsidence and overgrowth. Thanks to a joint effort by Land Art Flevoland, Flevoland Province and Het Flevo-landschap, the work has been preserved for the future.

Aardzee was realised in 1982 through the government scheme “Spatial Projects” of the Ministry of Culture, Recreation and Social Work (CRM). Levende Huizen, also known as Monument voor een Woningwetwoning (Monument for a Housing Act house), by Anne Mieke Backer in Almere and Schuilhuttenplan by Krijn Giezen in Zeewolde also emerged from this scheme - two outstanding examples of early landscape art in the Netherlands. During our voyage of discovery, we will visit, among other things, Monument voor een Woningwetwoning in the Leeghwaterplas in Almere, restored in 2023 by local residents of the Neighbourhood Management Group De Eilanders. We also visit artist Krijn Giezen's Schuilhutten in the Harderbos near Zeewolde, which were restored a few years ago by Natuurmonumenten through the efforts of a number of volunteer ambassadors from the art world. During the Land Art Lives discovery tour, you will discover the stories behind these works. During lunch at De Verbeelding in Zeewolde, we will exclusively screen Kunst op de Bodem (Art down to Earth), a film we rediscovered at Het Flevolands Archief in preparation for this tour. The film is about the art commissions in the 1970s and contains unique footage of Krijn Giezen (1939 - 2011), Piet Slegers (1923 - 2016) and Anne Mieke Backer.

De Verbeelding

We also reflect on lost or damaged works realised in Zeewolde in the period 2000-2003 from De Verbeelding art landscape nature. From this initiative, internationally renowned artists were invited to realise artworks in and around the landscape of De Verbeelding in Zeewolde. Which artworks are still there? What traces can still be traced? And what were the thoughts behind these artworks? Together with Ella Derksen - Embedding the Arts (former director of De Verbeelding and Kunstcentrum Flevoland) and Truus Visser, committed resident and ambassador of Land Art in Flevoland, we will be looking for traces of artworks by artists including herman de vries, Ulf Rollof and Ann Veronica Janssens.

Taking care of land art together

Although a number of artworks have unfortunately disappeared over time, some artworks have also been preserved and restored - mostly through the voluntary efforts of residents or other stakeholders who raised the importance of the artworks. What can we learn from this? How can we link local involvement with knowledge about these artworks to jointly generate a sustainable future for these vulnerable artworks in public spaces? What is the role of residents, authorities and artists in this? And how can we already take sustainable management into account in future commissions?

Join Land Art Lives on Friday 13 June and discover how past, present and future come together in the landscape and land art in Flevoland.