Esther Kokmeijer – Nature Proof / Human Climate Resistance Experiment on Zandmotor during the Winter Solstice 2015

Esther Kokmeijer – Nature Proof / Human Climate Resistance Experiment
Winter Solstice, 21 & 22 December 2015
De Zandmotor, The Netherlands

In December 2015 I was invited by the artist Esther Kokmeijer to participate in an event she had organised about 'nature and climate proof & resistance' as a part of her ongoing project Because We Meet, about the interaction between nature and mankind, and research on the beach of the Zandmotor, NL and in China and on Antarctica. This event on the Zandmotor was organised in collaboration with the Satellietgroep.
This event took place on the beach of the Zandmotor along the coast near The Hague on the Winter Solstice and the longest night of the year of 21 and 22 December 2015. Experienceing, interrogating and embracing the cold and heat during a cold training in the North Sea and a heat ritual in a sweat lodge. A group of some 15 people were invited to stay the night on the beach, having a cold swim in the sea and participate in a Shamanistic Sweat Lodge Ceremony.

Among the participants were:
Esther Kokmeijer (artist), Jurjen Annen (Bosbeweging, workshop about cold, Wim Hof therapy), Mark Hoek (Shaman, Sweat Lodge Ceremony, Bear Creek), Martin Dal, Lineke Berkhout and Jan Zandberg (Fire Keepers), Dirk Sijmons (Landscape Architect and Planner, former Professor TU Delft, one of the founders of the Zandmotor), Jacqueline Heerema, Francois Lombarts, Theun Karelse & Ronald Boer (artists and members Satellietgroep), Florian Braakman (Photography), Gerben Kokmeijer (Sound engineer), Stefan Scholtes (reddingsbrigade), Hanneke Wetzer (artist, curator MU Artspace, Eindhoven), Ellen Mangnus (KIT, Koninklijk Instituut voor de Tropen / Royal Tropical Institute), Marc Broere (LokaalMondiaal), Ronald Schuetze (camera, film), Cocky Eek (artist, teacher ArtScience Interfaculty Royal Academy of Art, The Hague), Peter Foolen (publisher, designer, curator), Florian Wolf (music), Maarten Groeneveld (Wadduurzaam, Ecolution).

Supported by Provincie Zuid-Holland, Gemeente Westland, Stroom, Stichting DOEN and Mondriaan Fonds.
www.estherkokmeijer.nl
www.satellietgroep.nl
www.zandmotor.nl
Jurjen Annen www.bosbeweging.nl
Mark Hoek www.bearcreek.nl
Dirk Sijmons www.hnsland.nl

photography © top Esther Kokmeijer, second from top Joop van Houdt, Rijkswaterstaat, 2011, all others Peter Foolen, 21/22 December 2015