Maarten Vanden Eynde

“Can you be urban and rural at the same time? Was the countryside ever romantic? Was mankind once better? Why did we embrace the Market Economy at the exact moment that science knew Climate change was upon us? Does A.I. offer help? When did we cease to meander? Is it too late? Where did the cows go?”

The extensive study ‘Countryside’ by our Guests Samir Bantal & Rem Koolhaas is the starting point of Chapter 5IVE. This study, started in 2012, delves into contemporary rural developments all across the globe. According to Samir and Rem, cities have long ceased to be the locus of major transformations in our lifestyles, instead, these changes are happening in the areas outside of cities. Following a number of brainstorm sessions with Guests Bantal and Koolhaas, curator Rieke Vos has developed an extensive exhibition featuring works that make us aware of the paradoxes between rural life and living in the cities. The works in this exhibition make us aware of these paradoxes and give space for a critical reflection on our relation with rural life and nature, now and in the future.