Shortcut
Imagine, it’s a drizzly Tuesday morning and you’re in a hurry. You have to catch a train. As you cross the Westplein, right next to the Utrecht Central Station, the wind plays with the litter. Or maybe you’re walking your dog. This is not really a place where you want to stay for a while, it’s the ultimate anti-oasis.

But once upon a time it was different. At the invitation of the Gemene Grond foundation, we created the work ‘GrondStof’, which would translate loosely as Re:Source. For a month we worked from Perron West, a train carriage in the middle of this traffic square. This used to be a wilderness. The river Rhine meandered across the square. There was even a time without people.

GrondStof
2024
Client Gemene Grond
Together with a morphologist, we retrieved an undisturbed core sample. We went five meters into the ground, right through all the layers of clay and peat to the sand wedges of the last ice age, some 12,000 years ago. We analyzed the soil and translated this into a design reflecting the earth that carries us. Together with the residents of the multicultural district of Lombok, we tufted a carpet in an open studio. Because thread connects. To create new ground under our feet to meet on. To question that very ground. The core sample is exhibited on the Westplein and the carpet, exactly as long as the sample core is deep, is currently on display in the Stadsklooster.


Studio Detour

de Vrije Wolf
Wolvenplein 27
3512 CK Utrechtinfo@takeadetour.eu

Marnix de Klerk 06 19446337
Nina Mathijsen 06 17570018