Terraria Subterraneus

‘Terraria Subterraneus’ is a collection of terraria that encourage building new relationships with subterranean ecosystems. The world‘s largest land reclamation project, Flevoland, acted as the main context of investigation and is often illustrated as the ultimate terrarium. A human attempt to recreate a ‘natural’ environment where flora, fauna and matter have been added and maintained, distributed and manipulated to create profitable land. Our work aims to highlight the importance of soil for all living species while addressing some of humankind‘s feelings towards the underground, feelings of uncertainty, fear, suspicion and disgust. Considering, not only Flevoland but the world as the ultimate terrarium, we can reconsider on a planetary scale what distorting our everyday senses might provoke. Experiencing the complexity of soil is vital, but recognition of its vulnerability is even more so.

The research consists of different terraria models in various scales, talks with multiple ecologists and artists and on-site interventions (also during Flevoland’s Landart Festival 2022).