Van Gogh Homeland Festival Shines The Spotlight On Artist’s Beloved Landscape

Fans can take a first glimpse into Van Gogh Homeland, as Dutch architectural studio MVRDV has unveiled the first images of the upcoming festival set to take place in the North Brabant landscape of the Netherlands in 2025.

Curated by co-founder Winy Maas, the biennale aims to shine a spotlight on the environmental concerns the famed region is facing through a series of architecture, landscape design, and eco-friendly exhibits.

North Brabant is often known as the place that inspired many of Vincent van Gogh’s iconic paintings—hence the event’s name—but is now threatened by increased flood risks while farmers, industries, and nature lovers fight over the little available space.

Visitors to the biennale will get to traverse super dunes, horticultural towers, rain chambers, and heather houses dotted throughout the picturesque landscape. Artists involved in the project have been tasked to showcase the area’s best features in imaginative ways.

“The ambition is to show, in an attractive and accessible way, how the landscape that inspired Vincent van Gogh 150 years ago can be made more sustainable and greener in the future,” explained MVRDV.

Overall, the event will be segmented into three different aspects: the main Van Gogh Homeland Biennale, the Van Gogh Homeland Experience—an attraction developed by the Efteling amusement park—and the Van Gogh Homeland Atelier, which will act as a “hub of knowledge.”

Interestingly, the studio emphasized the aim of the event is not to give visitors “a moralistic message,” but to let them experience climate change and present possible solutions to the problems the region faces.

After the first edition of the project takes place in 2025, the biennale will then shift to a different area of Brabant every two years, hoping to strengthen the city’s identity and involve more young people in coming up with ideas to protect the landscape around them.

[via Dezeen and aasarchitecture, images via MVRDV]