TITUS HORA (1958), FIRST-YEAR STUDENT AT THE FRANK MOHR INSTITUTE
‘I like De Ploeg's work because it was new at the time and in context it was a revolutionary development in design. It's much more playful than nowadays. It's a coincidence that my work is also quite playful: I'm not necessarily looking for a De Ploeg similarity in the work I show at the Shaky Grounds festival. I want people to have a chance to really participate in the festival, so I thought of an interactive piece. I don't want to be too serious in my work: I understand that the earthquake problem in the north is a concern, but at the same time I am not sure that art is the best medium to change the problem. As an artist, I am primarily interested in aesthetics and programming.
It is the programming that runs our lives right now, whether we like it or not. And I look for human interaction in that. De Ploeg also used the latest possible techniques and tools in their time. For example, they painted en plein air and used paints that did not dry quickly. I recognize Groningen in the works of De Ploeg, but in contemporary Groningen I do not immediately recognise De Ploeg's influence. De Ploeg gave us the opportunity to be part of something, and I try to bring that about in my work as well.’
INBAL HERSHTIG, FIRST-YEAR STUDENT AT THE FRANK MOHR INSTITUTE
‘I feel connected to De Ploeg because they were young, worked in a group and created their own platform. They were not accepted by agencies and started working on their own. In this day and age, we would call that DIY — Do It Yourself — which you see a lot of in Western culture right now. Being independent as a group is very powerful.
What I like is that the artists put a lot of themselves into the art; it's about their own interpretation of a cityscape or landscape.
De Ploeg is very much concerned with location and local landscapes. This intrigued me, so I also wanted to do something with the Groningen landscape. The biggest change from a hundred years ago to today is access to information. Today you can find much more information online: there is a wealth of data available. The whole problem of earthquakes is an issue because we have developed technologies to change landscapes. So it’s not about using the land: it’s about changing it. One of the first stories I heard about Groningen was that the farmers are having an incredibly hard time here, because of the earthquakes. I have often researched the history of areas, and I have done so again in my work this time. This allowed me to summarise all those points between the earthquakes, De Ploeg and my own work.’
MARLON VALK (1995), FOURTH-YEAR STUDENT AT PRINCE CLAUS CONSERVATORIUM
‘I am studying at the conservatory and taking an Offcourse project at Minerva where we had a class on De Ploeg. From there we started experimenting a lot with music and the visual arts. We were looking for a connection between these art forms. I think De Ploeg is very colourful. The work is really different from what was seen before. De Ploeg was clearly a group: it was not every man for himself or elbowing in, instead they supported each other. In the Offcourse project we started to form groups of four people; my group made a video where the music and the image work together. The biggest similarity between our work and the work of De Ploeg is that we sought out collaboration with each other's artistic areas and we learned to look at it from a different perspective. We inspired each other in this. We also shot the video at recognisable points in the city, which also corresponds to the recognisable cityscapes that De Ploeg painted.’
ROSA BAKKER (1995), SECOND-YEAR STUDENT AT ACADEMIE MINERVA
‘The conservatory students and Minerva students did not know each other before the Offcourse project began. That's why we started the lessons with improvisations where the musicians started playing and we responded by drawing or through a performance. I formed a group with three other conservatory students: for us, the collaboration between the visual arts and music was especially important. This is also reflected in De Ploeg, which was a large collective. Innovation was important for De Ploeg, and it was important for our group. We especially looked at the combination of art and music and how we could enhance each other's work with it.
One difference between now and a hundred years ago is that De Ploeg was focused on landscape and portrait. I think you see that much less frequently in today’s art world. Because my mother has a collection of prints by De Ploeg, I occasionally recognise the Groningen landscape they painted: I can still see the influence of De Ploeg in this.’
The festival kicks off on 8 June at 19.00 with a celebratory opening night with a DJ, food and drinks. On Saturday and Sunday, in addition to visiting the exhibition, you can join the Table Talks by Kunstspot (Saturday) and a lecture by Mariëtta Jansen, curator of De Ploeg at the Groninger Museum (Sunday).
Text: Marije Schrage