Descent into the Future (2020). Copyright: Deep Time Agency

Gallery 3 By Deep Time Agency | Solo Exhibition at Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
(06 Oct. - 22 Oct. 2022)

Deep Time Agency proudly presents its first solo exhibition at Het Nieuwe Instituut.
A multi-year, artistic research initiative, the agency re-contextualises archaeological and paleontological objects in (post-)industrial landscapes, in collaboration with local residents, stakeholders and institutions. The result is a series of case studies that highlights changing landscapes and found objects and brings them together in an overarching artistic project. The first four parts, Descent into the Future (2020), Concrete Reef (2022), Ancestors Rising (2022) and Swamp Palace (2022), can now be seen in Gallery 3 of the Nieuwe Instituut in Rotterdam.

Deep Time Agency's projects spring from the crossroads of art, design, archaeology and cultural heritage. The agency members view its interdisciplinary work as exercises in deep-time thinking, trying to break through the short-term thinking that stands at the origin of the climate crisis. Deep Time Agency is characterised by a strong methodical approach. By means of temporary interventions and art in public space, it focuses on archaeological objects that have been found in various (post-)industrial landscapes, collaborating with scientists, experts and local residents. Deep Time Agency believes that mining areas deserve more attention, especially in a time characterised by the awareness of the finiteness of fossil fuels and other industrial resources.

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Archival Photo Mines Waterschei Genk, Copyright: Mine Depot Genk, BE

The Forest Underground - New Project funded by O&O Grant - CBK Rotterdam | in collaboration with Jester & Emile van Dorenmuseum Genk (24 Aug. - 31 Dec 2022)

The Forest Underground (2022-2023) researches the acoustic agency of birds, trees, and insects in the Limburgian coal mines, highlighting how the voices of pinewood, canaries, and crickets were utilized by the mining industry deep underground. Exemplary, the cracking of wood was used to signal the collapse of the tunnels to the workers, thus bearing a strong form of material agency. This is an alteration of the well-known canary in the coal mine, showing how the agency of sentinel species spanned from animals to plants and trees. The project focuses on the concept of rebirth, based on the emergence of the post-industrial forest of Genk after the mining industry. Parts of Genks forest were planted to find fitting wood for the support of mine galleries, a harsh contrast to the landscape highlighted in Chase (2020), in which trees disappeared because of the lignite industry.

The Forest Underground is conducted in collaboration with composer Drake Stoughton (US/NL 1995). Researching Genk´s mining and landscape painting history in collaboration with Jester and Emile van Dorenmuseum, the work will form a diptych to our earlier work, questioning the ecological and historical legacy of the fossil fuel industry in the border region of Limburg.

Ancestors Rising Still, Copyright: Deep Time Agency, 2022

Ancestors Rising at Day of the Archeology & geSHICHTEN Conference | Aussenstelle Titz & Abtei Brauweiler, LVR LandesMuseum Bonn, DE (20th Aug. - 24/25 Oct. )

Deep Time Agency´s new film Ancestors Rising (2022) will premiere at the Day of the Archeology 2022 and will be screened and presented at the conference geSCHICHTEN Rheinisches Revier. Strukturwandel als kultureller Möglichkeitsraum, organised by the LVR Landesmuseum Bonn, DE. During these events, the cultural legacy of the RWE lignite industry will be discussed, taking archeological finds from the excavation sites as starting points and granting them a functional role in the repurposing process of the industrial landscape.

Ancestors Rising was a site-specific intervention at the former Garzweiler lignite mine in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany. In 1987, archaeologists made a unique discovery in the middle of the Garzweiler mine when they found two 10.000-year-old antler frontlets. These rare objects were most likely part of a shamanic garb, worn during ceremonies in the Stone Age. Ancestors Rising aims to revisit this point of departure in order to rethink the role of humans in this industrial environment and to envision ways to reconnect with the intrinsic nature of the land. The work reactivated the antler artefacts through temporarily bringing them back to their exact find place, nowadays located in the air.

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Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne - Climate of Concern 2022. Copyright: RADIUS CCA / photo: Gunnar Meier. Work on right: Julian Charriere, Future Fossil Spaces, 2017

Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne at CLIMATE OF CONCERN | Exhibition at RADIUS, Centre for Contemporary Art & Ecology, Delft (09 July - 11 Sept. 2022)

The tapestry Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne (2021-2022), produced together with the TextileLab in Tilburg, will be on show at the CLIMATE OF CONCERN exhibition at Radius CCA in Delft. CLIMATE OF CONCERN is the second exhibition of the Underland year program, examining the current over-indebtedness to the fossil fuel industry and mineral extractivism through the work of nine artists: Bianca Bondi, Julian Charrière, Amalie Jakobsen, Regina de Miguel, Agnieszka Polska, Lisa Rave, Oliver Ressler, Miriam Sentler and Sam Smith.

In 1991, Shell released the documentary Climate of Concern, which displayed the potentially catastrophic consequences of climate change: increasing drought, extreme weather, floods, crop failures, disappearing islands, and migration. Yet Shell, alongside other petrochemical companies, continues to profit from fossil fuel extraction, actively contributing to climate change. Nowadays, we have become intertwined with fossil memory so much so that there is no single aspect in our lives that is not somehow impacted by the (ab)use of fossil fuels: from the buildings we inhabit, the pavement they stand on, and the cars that pass them by, to the clothes we wear or the wrapping of our food.

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Swamp Palace I at Nieuwe Uitzichten Exhibition - Odapark, Venray, NL.
Photo Credits: Deep Time Agency, 2022

Swamp Palace at Nieuwe Uitzichten | Exhibition at Odapark, Venray (31 July - 23 Oct. 2022)

Deep Time Agency´s new work Swamp Palace (2022) investigates the demand for greenery in Tegelen, a village near Venlo that is best known for the ceramic industry. In the project we refer to the work of the paleoanthropologist Eugene Dubois (1858-1940), who conducted ecological experiments in the area. He wanted to establish a flourishing primeval landscape here, growing fossilised seeds that he found in the industrial clay pits of Tegelen. Dubois was critical of the developing industry in his time and looked for a method to recultivate the damaged land. Nowadays, urban developers and designers seem to express a similar dissatisfaction with the lack of nature in Tegelen and surroundings. Responding to this, we resurrect Dubois experiment one hundred years later, once again attempting to explore the primeval landscape of Tegelen.

The water basin in the exhibition space forms a diptych with a sculpture, which can be seen from September onwards in the center of Tegelen. In the exhibition space, Dubois´ waterplants play a leading role; in Tegelen. the land-based plants. Swamp Palace shows an apocalyptic image: referring to the recent floods of July 2021, but also to the nickname that the town hall was given when it was built: Swamp Palace. Since the monumental building was erected on a swampy stretch of land, the local residents thought that the monumental building would soon sink into the swamp.

Artists: Emy Bensdorp, Deep Time Agency, Biën Kamphuis & Rutger Vos, Brecht Koelman, Chaim van Luit, Lobke Meekes, Ingeborg Meulendijks & Rick van der Linden, Christian Odzuck, Judith Reijnders, Judith Schils, Fabian Seibert, Mona Steinhäußer

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Examining tropical vegetation on the estate of Eugene Dubois. Still Swamp Palace
- Nieuwe Uitzichten: Museum Bommel van Dam & Odapark. Photo: Doerak film

Swamp Palace at Nieuwe Uitzichten | New Commissioned Work in Public Space in Tegelen - Museum Bommel van Dam & Odapark Venray (9 Sept. 2022 - 7 Oct. 2022)

Museum van Bommel van Dam and Odapark in Venray have jointly started Nieuwe Uitzichten. Supported by the North Limburg Culture Region, nine artists and designers from the Euregion around North Limburg are developing a project within this exhibition that contributes to the greening of our living environment. Each artist focuses on a specific location. In these nine places, efforts are being made towards a green intervention in the public space.

Deep Time Agency´s project proposal for Nieuwe Uitzichten focuses on the environment of Tegelen. At the start of construction of Tegelen´s town hall, there was a lot of discussion about the choice of location. Many thought that the ground in this place would be too swampy, not suitable for such a building. The town hall was therefore nicknamed the 'Swamp Palace'. Our research takes this historical reference a starting point for thinking about the ecological future of the city. The plan is to actually transform the town hall into a swamp palace. For this imaginative gesture, we are inspired by the Ice Age jungle of Tegelen, which renowned paleoanthropologist Eugène Dubois (1858-1940) reconstructed 100 years ago at Landgoed de Bedelaar near Tegelen. Dubois designed an exotic (water) landscape on his estate, based on millions of years old fossilised seeds from the former Tegelen clay quarries. Following Dubois, we are undertaking a similar experiment, but in the center of Tegelen. The premise here is that the imagination, which is necessary to imagine the growth of a primeval jungle in Tegelen, undermines the short-term thinking that underpins the curren climate crisis.

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Sketch Concrete Reef. Credits: Deep Time Agency, 2022

Concrete Reef | New Commissioned Work for Still Waters Run Deep Exhibition - Nieuw Dakota Amsterdam (26 june - 27 aug. 2022)

Nieuw Dakota presents the exhibition Still Waters Run Deep, an exhibition in which 7 artists respond to today's climate issues, curated by Marlies Augustijn. Water is vital to life on planet Earth. It covers much of the Earth’s surface in oceans, rivers, lakes and seas, and appears as groundwater, glaciers and clouds. It is captured in political and cultural phenomena, such as drinking and wastewater systems, aquariums and swimming pools. Crucially, water also flows through us to hydrate and fuel cells, organs and tissue and we shed it as tears. The exhibition explores how the fundamental connection between humanity and nature, water in particular, can take on a more central role in our actions.

Three artists, Hannah Rowan, Deep Time Agency (Miriam Sentler & Wouter Osterholt) and Kasia Molga, will present new work in the exhibition. The production of the new work is generously supported by the Mondriaan Fonds and the Stichting Niemeijer Fonds.

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Ij River, Port of Amsterdam. Credits: FieldARTS

Transitional Water Residency | FieldARTS - Estuaries of the Ij River, Port of Amsterdam, North-Sea (4 - 8 july 2022)

FieldARTS is an annual residency designed for emerging scholars and artists engaged in environmental and artistic research. The intensive week-long program allows for collaborative knowledge creation in dialogue with experts both on and in the field. During the residency, participants are invited to attend extended field trips, lectures by key theorists in the field of environmental humanities, collaborative workshops, and public-facing roundtable discussions.

Within the FIELDarts residency, Sentler plans to start the second chapter of Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne (2021-ongoing), focusing on the Amsterdam Harbour as the biggest petrol port in the world. Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne highlights the mythical and cultural implications of oil extraction in changing maritime landscapes as a long-term artistic research project. By conducting residencies, Miriam mapped the historical, mythical, and ecological implications of the oil industry in the Hebrides and off the coast of Bergen and Stavanger, resulting in the first chapter of the project.

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Audio recordings at Winterslag and Waterschei, Genk, BE

The Chase | Residency at Jester (CIAP/FLACC) & Emile van Doren Museum, Genk, BE (April/ June 2022)

In April and June 2022 I am staying at Jester (formerly: CIAP/FLACC) and the Emile van Dorenmuseum to record the sounds of the post-industrial forests of Genk, growing on the terrils of Waterschei and Winterslag (artificial hills made out of ‘waste’ soil resulting from the excavation for coal). The recordings will form the bases for the Chase II, developed together with Jester Genk (formerly CIAP/FLACC).

The new work will form the second part of The Chase (2020), researching the post-industrial forest which developed after the closing of the coal mines and contrasting the sound recordings in the endangered Hambacher Forst in North-Rhine Westphalia, DE.

Filming day Ancestors Rising, Garzweiler, North-Rhine Westphalia, DE

Ancestors Rising | Presentation at LVR Kulturkonferenz Brauweiler, DE
(1 June 2022)

On the 1st of June, Deep Time Agency presents Ancestors Rising (2022) for the first time at the LVR Kulturkonferenz in Brauweiler (DE). Ancestors Rising is a new work in the context of the Garzweiler lignite pit in North-Rhine Westphalia, Germany. With the help of KIWI aerial shots and camera man Casper Brink, we flew a replica of the Antler Headdress of Bedburg-Königshoven back to its exact finding location in the pit. Since all surrounding earth was excavated, the antler headdress was relocated in the air. The antler headdress was used by shamans 10.000 years ago, who placed them on their heads during ceremonies to ask the nature gods for good crops and hunting conditions. Ancestors Rising is the second work and case study of Deep Time Agency and will form a diptych with our first work Descent into the Future (2020).

Tapestry Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne at Art Rotterdam 2022. Photo: Aad Hoogendoorn

Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne | Exhibition at Prospects - Art Rotterdam 2022 (19 - 22 May 2022)

The tapestry Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne (2021-2022), produced together with the TextileLab in Tilburg, will be on show for the first time during the annual Prospects exhibition of the Mondrian Fund during Art Rotterdam. Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne researches the historical, present and future connections between oil and myth in aquatic fossil fuel landscapes. By undertaking residencies close to the oil industry’s working places, ecological facts, personal stories and local myths encountered in the landscapes are used to explore the commercial use of both oil and myth.

The Mondriaan Fund organizes the annual Prospects exhibition to give an extra impulse to the visibility of starting artists. Having them all together at Art Rotterdam gives art professionals and collectors, as well as a broad group of interested visitors, the opportunity to become acquainted with the work of these promising artists.

Workshop Concrete Reef with students from the Institute of Fine Arts Maastricht, 2022

Concrete Reef | Workshop at Minor Artistic Research in Situ -Institute of Fine Arts Maastricht (16 - 19 March 2022)

In march 2022 we gave a site-specific workshop to the students of the Institute of Fine Arts in the ENCI quarry in Maastricht. During the workshop, we opened up the process of Concrete Reef, further developing the project within an educational framework. The production of the new work is generously supported by the Mondriaan Fonds and the Stichting Niemeijer Fonds.

In 2019, artists Miriam Sentler and Wouter Osterholt set up an interdisciplinary research initiative: Deep Time Agency. DTA is designed as a multi-year research project that recontextualizes archaeological objects in industrially changed landscapes in collaboration with local residents, stakeholders and institutions. The initiative merges different historical time layers of places to form a material voice for the present and future of the disrupted landscapes, working in an activist and poetic way with the symbolics of the objects.

Exploded View, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam

Janus Walk | Exhibition at Exploded View - Arti et Amicitiae Amsterdam
(25 Feb. - 27 March 2022)

In 2018 and 2019, 13 international artists went on an extended research period to the Parco Regionalle Dell´Appia Antica in Rome (IT). The project took place within the artistic research project Exploded View, organized by curator Dr. Krien Clevis, Prof. dr. Gert-Jan Burgers (VU-Chair in Mediterranean archaeology and heritage/director CLUE+) and Alice Smits (artistic director Zone2Source Amsterdam). The final works will be on show at Arti et Amicitiae Amsterdam in February 2022 and has previously been exhibited and presented at Ex Cartiera Latina and MACRO, Museum for Contemporary Art, Rome.

Sentler´s project Janus Walk - A Lament for Lost Rites (2019) emphasizes the immaterial and performative rituals of the Via Appia Antica, and how these have been threatened by the over-trafficking of the ancient pilgrimage route. By reintroducing the Roman god Janus and by redeploying him within a performance over the first few miles of the Via Appia Antica, a rare gesture of slowness, performativity and spirituality was made. During the travel, the Roman god of travel and transition guarded the traveler, again fulfilling his role as a protecting spirit.

Image CAIRBAN, Hebridean Sea, July 2021. Credits image: Miriam Sentler

CAIRBAN: A Contemporary Shark Hunt | Performance at Prøverommet - Bergen Kulturhuset, METEOR (26 Oct. 2021)

Reading performance with Robert Carter, presentation ‘The Cairban Gazette’, artist publication realised together with Sadie Hale (PT/UK 1992). During METEOR 2021. Prøverommet is BIT Teatergarasjen's autonomous sidekick, which moves between arenas, galleries and other places around Bergen. This concept provides the opportunity for new voices, new material, thoughts and ideas to be tested in an informal and dynamic alternative to the permanent institutions in Bergen. It has existed together with BIT Teatergarasjen's season program since 1998, and has always searched for the latest developments in the underground of Bergen's art scene.

The performance CAIRBAN – A Contemporary Shark Hunt is rooted within a three-day sea journey on the Atlantic Ocean, searching for the elusive Basking Shark. The project is initiated by artist Miriam Sentler (1994, DE/NL) and environmental humanities researcher Sadie Hale (1992, UK/PT) and formed their first collaboration. The performance is accompanied by the launch of a new artist publication: ‘The Cairban Gazette’, a newspaper which gathers different historical gazes on the Basking shark, spanning from the 18th century until the present day. The front page features the news about the crew's own non-encounter, letting the shark ‘off the hook’ after centuries of being captured in newspaper headlines.

Textiellab Tilburg, Credits Image: VVV Tilburg

Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne | Production at the TextielLab / TextielMuseum Tilburg (Aug. - Dec. 2021)

Thanks to the amazing support of the Prins Bernhard Cultuurfonds, Stichting Stokroos and the Mondriaan Fonds, I will develop a new, large-scale textile work at the Textielmuseum in the upcoming months.

The TextielLab is the professional working place of the Textielmuseum. It distinguishes itself as a one-of-a-kind knowledge centre for textile development where professionals are explicitly involved in carrying out extraordinary, customised projects. The TextielLab focuses on manual and industrial techniques: weaving, knitting, embroidery, tufting, passementerie and laser cutting. For visitors, the TextielLab offers a unique glimpse at textile manufacturing techniques both old and new. Here you can watch professionals at work.

Recording birdsongs, 2021

The Chase: An Artist Talk and Auditive Performance | Solo presentation at CIAP/ FLACC Genk (14 Aug. 2021)

Guest speakers: composer Drake Stoughton (USA)
& ornithologist Johan Schoonaert (BE)

CIAP invites Miriam to be the next guest to animate a piece of public furniture — the heated daybed, realised on the C-mine site by Ciel Grommen and Maximiliaan Royakkers. Departing from the question of how to inhabit the ‘disturbed landscape’of Winterslag, their project Le Paysage Ménagé provided both a physical and theoretical framework for future interventions on site. Miriam Sentler’s talk and auditory performance is the second episode in the series of events planned on and around the heated daybed, and bringing together its different users.

The event marks the beginning of a longer project at Jester Genk, researching the post-industrial landscape of Genk in Belgium.

United Sardine Factories, 1929

Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne | Second Research Period at USF Verftet Residency, Bergen Norway (16 Sept. -16 Nov. 2021)

In the upcoming year and with the generous financial support of the Stipendium for Emerging Artists of the Mondriaan Fund and the Gerbrandy Culture Fund, I will start a period of site-specific research into aquatic fossil fuel landscapes. The artistic project Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne discusses the triangle of the natural, the industrial and the mythical in industrially deployed seascapes, questioning the use of mythical symbols and natural matter by the fossil fuel industry.

For this new project, I will stay from September until December 2021 at the United Sardine Factory residency in Bergen, Norway. USF Verftet and the council of Bergen offers a residency to professional artists of all fields. The aim is to strengthen, promote and develop collaborations between contemporary artists in Bergen and foreign artists. Yearly, an average of eight international artists and writers are selected for the residency program.

Documentation of residency on Isle of Coll, Scotland, july 2021

Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne | First Research Period at KNOCKvologan Residency, Mull, Scotland (02 Jul. -01 Aug. 2021)

In the upcoming year and with the generous financial support of the Stipendium for Emerging Artists of the Mondriaan Fund and the Gerbrandy Culture Fund, I will start a period of site-specific research into aquatic fossil fuel landscapes. The artistic project Fossil Fuel Mnemosyne discusses the triangle of the natural, the industrial and the mythical in industrially deployed seascapes, questioning the use of mythical symbols and natural matter by the fossil fuel industry.

For this new project, I will stay in July 2021 at the KNOCKvologan Residency on the Isle of Mull in Scotland, together with writer Sadie Hale. The residency offers a remote refuge for art, literature, research and nature preservation and strengthens collaborations between artists, writers, researchers and the local community. During our residency, we will research natural origins of oil production, focussing on the plankton-feeding Basking Shark inhabiting the waters around the Isle of Mull.