Echoes of Nature

Echoes of Nature is a group exhibition in which five artists explore the complex relationship between humans and nature. The result is a series of new works that engage in dialogue with current ecological issues. They reveal what is invisible, such as slow changes and the rhythms of water and wind.

The exhibition takes place in a glass greenhouse on Pieterskerkplein in Leiden. A transparent, temporary place for growth, reflection, and experimentation. From the outside, it looks like a contemporary cabinet of curiosities. Inside, an exhibition unfolds with sculptures, installations, videos, and interactive elements that invite wonder and engagement.

The works reflect nature. They distort, amplify, or slow down. They make room for other perspectives, for slowness, for listening. Like an echo, they do not sound just once, but continue to reverberate. The themes: ‘global commons’, ecological decline, coastal erosion, transience and perception, resonate beyond the moment of viewing. They return, sometimes at an unexpected moment. In a thought. In a conversation.

About the artworks / artists

JULIA JULY — Grains of Sand (2025)

Sand is abundant on the coast. It shapes the landscape, slips through our fingers, and crunches under our feet. In my artistic research, I took this simple material as a starting point to look at the world.

What began as curiosity grew into a quest for attentive observation. In my process documentation, I recorded the steps of this research: from fieldwork in the dunes to tufting carpets in which grains of sand are depicted abstractly. I explored the relationship between scale, material, and attention. What happens when we enlarge the smallest part of a landscape, a single grain of sand, into something that fills our entire field of vision?

The microscopic images of sand evoked the need to create something tangible. This led me to tufting: a manual technique that allowed me to translate the sharpness and texture of sand into something soft and tactile. The whimsical shapes and subtle colors took on a new, physical dimension in a different form. The soft material contrasts with the rough texture of sand. The act of tufting is slow and rhythmic, almost meditative. It became a physical translation of the calmness I also experience at the sea. In my carpets, sand and textiles come together as small landscapes, meant to be explored with the eye and the hand.

By looking at sand through a microscope, I discovered an unexpected world full of shapes,

colors, and structures. My working method moved between art, graphic design, and research,

with the eye becoming my most important instrument. This project invites you to slow down and pay attention. Even in something as small and everyday as a grain of sand, meaning can be found if we take the time to look closely.

Julia July (1998)

Julia July is a graphic designer and artist. She studied Graphic Design at the Willem de

Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and has since been working from her studio in Leiden. She was part of the artists' collective ROEM in Leiden. Julia's creative practice focuses on exploring the possibilities of visual communication, combining graphic techniques with investigative working methods. Drawing on her graphic background, she develops autonomous projects that explore the boundaries between design and art.

Her autonomous publications and research projects include VLOED: Voor de vrede en de frisse lucht (in collaboration with Jos Agasi), Rethinking Nature (nominated for the Rotterdam Drempelprijs), and Isolation Sounds (a collaboration with Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden).

https://julia-july.nl/

@julia.july.design

KARL KARLAS — Between Floating and Disappearing (2025)

During a residency on Vlieland, Karl Karlas explored the possible futures of the island and the Wadden Sea in the context of climate change. We find ourselves at a tipping point: an intermediate zone, still just floating, on the verge of disappearing.

But what does disappearing actually mean? Does it even exist, or is disappearing just another word for moving, changing, and starting over? What was the mudflat before it was a mudflat? And what will the mudflat become after it has been a mudflat? Karlas connects the vulnerable mudflat with distant islands that are slowly sinking into the sea, thus mirroring local traces of erosion against a global future.

The works breathe the rhythm of the tides. A circle appears and disappears, a sculpture sinks and returns, water flows out like a last breath. These are moments of transition: waiting, watching, experiencing how time unfolds.

The work invites stillness and conversation: about vulnerability, coastal loss, and our inability to control the sea. It highlights the beauty of transience, in which time and landscape are in constant motion.

Karl Karlas (1991)

Karlas explores the complex relationship between humans and nature. Through performances, sculptures, installations, and artistic research, they attempt to blur the boundaries between these seemingly different domains. Karlas is also fascinated by the passage of time, the traces it leaves behind, and the changes it brings about in both.

Central to their practice is therefore the use of leftover materials, originating from both humans and the environment. These remnants serve as symbols and, for Karlas, encapsulate the essence of our complex relationship with the natural world. By interweaving dissimilar materials, Karlas seeks to evoke a sense of harmony and ambiguity and invite the viewer to reflect on the balance that exists between humanity and our environment. Karlas' artworks raise questions about the boundaries between the natural and the artificial by connecting them in unexpected ways.

Karlas is inspired by current developments in the world and science and is always looking for new perspectives. In September 2025, Karlas will start the ArtScience master's program at the KABK.

www.karlkarlas.nl

@karlkarlas

ESTHER KOKMEIJER — Where Light Begins to Fade (2025)

The installation ‘Where light begins to fade II’ consists of a deep-sea field of copper manganese nodules. These spherical deposits of manganese, iron oxides, and other metals such as copper, cobalt, and zinc form in the deep sea, beyond depths of 4,000 meters, over millions of years, at a rate of only 1 centimeter per million years, around a core material such as a shark tooth. It is one of the slowest geological processes. 

There is a plan in place to mine these fields in the near future, within the next few years. Deep-sea harvesters will then irreversibly plow up large areas of the seabed. It is impossible to estimate how and to what extent the deep-sea ecosystem will be affected. Many of the organisms live buried in the deep-sea sediments, especially in the top 15 centimeters of the seabed. In this project, Kokmeijer questions our relationship with nature and how we sacrifice one thing to save another.

International law governing deep-sea mining is enshrined in the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS). During conventions preceding the treaty, the International Seabed Authority (ISA) was established. The ISA regulates deep-sea mining projects outside the Exclusive Economic Zone, an area of 200 nautical miles (370 km) off the coast of a country.

The manganese nodules in the installation ‘Where light begins to fade’ are exact copies of manganese nodules that Kokmeijer was allowed to borrow from Greenpeace Hamburg to make molds. With thanks to the Bewaerschole in Burgh Haamstede, where ‘Where light begins to fade I’ was exhibited. In addition to a manganese field, this installation also consisted of a translation of the seabed sediments through a layer of graphite powder that visitors had to walk through in order to see the entire exhibition.

Esther Kokmeijer (1977)

In her work as a visual artist, Kokmeijer focuses primarily on the ‘Global Commons’, the globally shared natural resources of the earth: the oceans, the atmosphere, the universe, and Antarctica. The theme of water in all its forms, such as liquid ‘water’, gaseous ‘vapor’, and solid ‘ice’, has played a major role in her work for several years.

She often collaborates with scientists and other professionals from different backgrounds, is interested in how art and science can reinforce each other, and is fascinated by projects in which art, mysticism, and science come together.

Kokmeijer worked for more than 10 years as an expedition photographer and polar guide in the Arctic and Antarctica. She is the founder and publisher of Antarktikos, the only international magazine entirely dedicated to Antarctica. This biannual printed journal brings together artistic and scientific exploration (www.antarktikos.com). and co-founder of the Cosmic Water Foundation (cosmicwaterfoundation.com), which conducts scientific and artistic research on the phenomenon of solar eclipses, among other things, and was involved in the establishment of the Embassy of the Moon (teylersmuseum.nl/nl/ambassade-van-de-maan). 

https://www.estherkokmeijer.nl/

@estherkokmeijer

STUDIO WANTIJ — I remember (2025)

Do you remember the last Elfstedentocht? When was the last time we could skate along the Rapenburg? Do you remember ice flowers sparkling on the windows in winter mornings? No? Maybe your parents do? The oldest residents of Leiden will certainly remember!

During the research period for Echoes of Nature, Wantij delved into our collective memory of winter. What happens when the ice, literally and figuratively, disappears from under our feet?

How is it possible that our parents grew up in such a different environment, and we are not even aware of what we are missing? ‘Shifting baseline syndrome’ is a psychological and sociological phenomenon in which each new generation accepts the situation in which they grew up as normal or natural. As a result, the accepted norm for the environment becomes lower with each generation.

The slowness of ecological decline makes it difficult to be aware of and allows us to pretend that nothing is happening. But the slow changes accumulate until our environment is unrecognizably different from our memories. This causes us to miss a sense of security and safety: nostalgia for a place you never left.

In the installation ‘Ik weet nog dat’ (I remember), the ice flowers that used to grow on windows are brought back to life. The installation evokes a sense of wonder, loss, and longing, inviting visitors to reflect on a changing world. Using ice flowers as an example of change within a single generation, Wantij invites reflection and conversation between people of different ages. What do you remember from your childhood? The work is a place to pause together, share memories, and cautiously form new images of the future—and in which winter, however fleeting, becomes tangible for a moment.

Studio Wantij

Artists Tom Bekkers and Querine van der Weijde form the duo Wantij. A wantij is a place where two tidal currents meet; a place without a dividing line, sometimes land and sometimes sea. This boundary-blurring way of thinking is central to their work. Wantij's work is created through on-site research, which means that the final work becomes strongly intertwined with it. With their kinetic installations and video work, they provide surprising perspectives that do justice to the polyphony and diversity of a place. For Wantij, art is a way of making complex facts and ecological themes understandable and tangible.

https://www.studiowantij.nl/

@studio.wantij

Additional program:

• Sept. 16, 5:00 p.m. - 8:00 p.m. Festive opening with artist talks
  Sept. 17, 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Interactive program with Julia July & Karl Karlas
  Sept. 19, 5:30 p.m. - 7:00 p.m. Lecture / artist talks with Esther Kokmeijer & Studio Wantij

Admission is free.