Wandering sheep / Pig’s field
Kunst & Zwalm is a biennial art route in the Zwalm region, organised by BOEM vzw. For the 2025 edition, the programme was put together by PLAN B. They decided to focus on the theme of soil. Three collectives, including Seasonal Neighbours, were invited to conduct local research for a year. This group of artists was gradually supplemented with other collective artists.
Inspired by the ubiquity of horses along the trail, we began to take an interest in the concept of “horsification”, a dynamic in the Flemish countryside where farms and their adjacent agricultural lands are turning into residential villas and horse meadows, causing land prices to rise sharply. At the same time, the few operative farms still existing in the area house a much larger number of animals that remain invisible in the landscape.
Which animals have access to land?
Guided by this question, we observed which animals roam freely and where their access is restricted. In conversation with farmers and residents of Zwalm we discovered that the motivations to these boundaries are varied. From hygiene to protection from predators, each draws its own line across the land.
Yet, animals make their presence known in different ways. The fleece of a sheep on the barbed wire, the sound of pigs coming from the stables, an occasional nest in a tree. It formed the basis for two spatial and sound interventions that reveal unbalanced ways of accessing land:
Wandering sheep
Inspired by the ubiquity of horses along the trail, we began to take an interest in the concept of “horsification”, a dynamic in the Flemish countryside where farms and their adjacent agricultural lands are turning into residential villas and horse meadows, causing land prices to rise sharply. At the same time, the few operative farms still existing in the area house a much larger number of animals that remain invisible in the landscape.
Which animals have access to land?
Guided by this question, we observed which animals roam freely and where their access is restricted. In conversation with farmers and residents of Zwalm we discovered that the motivations to these boundaries are varied. From hygiene to protection from predators, each draws its own line across the land.
Yet, animals make their presence known in different ways. The fleece of a sheep on the barbed wire, the sound of pigs coming from the stables, an occasional nest in a tree. It formed the basis for two spatial and sound interventions that reveal unbalanced ways of accessing land:
Wandering sheep
24 circles of wool on a line crossing 24 fences, 1 roaming sound piece
Sheep have escaped from their enclosures to return to their pastoral nomadic life. They have formed an unruly herd that crosses fences and woods, out of sight. A few traces remain – wool caught in the wires and the sounds of a shepherd trying to guide them.
Pig’s field
Pig’s field
a room of 25 square meter in a corn field, a space-filling sound piece, an open farrowing cage for pigs, a nest from paper feed bags and a floor of manure
Pigs, although invisible in the fields of Zwalm, are strong architects of the landscape: their manure fertilizes the fields, and the maize is grown to feed them. Even on farms, they keep trying to build: when the time comes for them to give birth, they look for material to build nests. Documentary traces left in the maize field invite acknowledgement of their presence, their role, and their needs in shaping the landscape.
This piece is made with the help of the pigs of the Zwalmbeekhoeve.
More information: website Kunst&Zwalm︎︎︎
More information: website Kunst&Zwalm︎︎︎