Guernica de la Ecologia '22

Guernica de Ecologia. Claudy Jongstra 2022. Foto: Natascha Libbert

From 12 May to 26 June 2022, CrossArts launched its first thematic year ‘Sustainability & Creativity’ with an exhibition at the Grote Kerk Breda featuring the latest work by the Netherlands' most eco-friendly textile artist Claudy Jongstra: Guernica de la Ecologia.

Guernica de la Ecologia is inspired by and a tribute to Pablo Picasso's Guernica (1938). Jongstra´s Guernica de la Ecologia is a manifesto: a plea for biodiversity and a call for a reassessment of the relationship between humankind and nature.

‘I hope that the warm materiality of my Guernica acts as an invitation. An invitation to pay attention to the things that surround us. When it comes to being mindful of the earth, every square metre counts.’ Claudy Jongstra

Guernica

Guernica de la Ecologia is a woollen messenger ‘against a world order that causes insufficient biodiversity, that lacks attention and love for the earth’. The work has the same impressive format as Picasso's work, with the same stark black, white and sepia palette. The war in Ukraine made the work even more relevant.

Bredase Bomen (Breda Trees)

Guernica de la Ecologia was surrounded by a Breda intervention: Bredase Bomen is a collaboration between Tim van den Burg and the Municipality of Breda, in which felled trees from the city are given a second lease of life as a picnic table, a bench or even as cheese boards. In the church, Jongstra's work was surrounded by tree-stump seating elements that subtly tell which street they came from and how long the tree stood in Breda. Van den Burg: ‘It's good that people see that old tree from their street again in a different way, as a form of circularity’.

CrossArts

CrossArts is a city-wide exhibition programme, resulting from the unique cooperation between Electron, BredaPhoto, Grote Kerk Breda and Tranzforma (City Gallery) and made possible by the municipality of Breda. CrossArts together with various partners will roll out a diverse and dynamic programme of exhibitions, presentations in public spaces, master classes, workshops, theatre and film performances in Breda from 2022 to 2024.