Friends of the Zwalm Villages

The non-profit organisation Friends of the Zwalm Villages is an open collective that strives for high-quality heritage management and development in Zwalm. Sometimes serious, sometimes playful and artistic, they engage in dialogue with fellow citizens and the administration. During Kunst & Zwalm, they reflect on the future of public (government) land. After all, various authorities also own a great deal of property in Zwalm. As a source of income, these public lands are being sold and parceled out at a rapid pace; a market logic that ignores their often centuries-long collective value. With the installation Geotine, they take this theme under the knife, both literally and figuratively. 

The geo in geotine refers to the ground beneath our feet – visible and valued in its openness. The geotine – a guillotine with an open window onto the landscape behind it – drops the blade. What remains is a decapitated view: open space is closed, sightlines disappear, collective land becomes private property. A confrontational image of how public landscape is silently disappearing – down to the ground. - Friends of the Zwalm Villages