With contributions by Walter Aigner, Material Cultures, Akshar Gajjar, INLAND Campo Adentro, Christine Lauterburg, Stefan Laxness, Guida Marques, Ciel Grommen, and many more the exhibition brought together a variety of artistic and academic research practices about rural life-worlds.
The free-floating installation and listening device by SEED CARRIERS was created by Anna Froelicher in collaboration with Juan Barcia Mas and the team at ETH’s NEWROPE Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation – Nemo Akkermann, Julius Baumanns, Caspar Bultmann, Nils Grootenzerink, Lauro Nächt, Zoé Rüttimann, Leon Weissheimer and Manu Zaparta.
IT WAS ALL FIELDS ONCE is the product of New Ruralities or NERU, a three-year collaboration among six European academic institutions funded by the Erasmus+ programme. The exhibition in Brussels unfolded across two compelmentary venues CIVA and TRACK, where a multi-layered archive of rural practices, rituals, and artefacts, primarily gathered during the project came to take shape. The exhibition marked the beginning of a growing collection of perspectives on rurality, not as something lost or in need of preservation, but as a dynamic force full of potential.
The exhibition seeks to reframe the countryside as a critical space for ecological, social, and architectural experimentation. The exhibition took place alongside the Shifting Ruralities symposium, a moment of closure and reflection for the NERU project, bringing together scholars, artists, and policymakers.
Our participation resonates with the exhibition’s proposition that rurality is not simply a place defined in contrast to the city, but a condition shaped by seed work that connects actors across different fields.
The exhibition was curated by Juan Barcia Mas, Sophia Garner, and Iva Valkanova from the NEWROPE Chair of Architecture and Urban Transformation, ETH Zürich. Assisted by Charlotte Eybl and Constantin Ferst. With production support from Nemo Akkerman, Julius Baumanns, Caspar Bultmann, Nils Grootenzerink, Lauro Nächt, Zoé Rüttimann, and Manu Zaparta. With graphic design by Maria Peskina and Johanna Gretzer.