49m2, year 9, winter 2025 | Roeland Rooijakkers

This coming winter period, artist Roeland Rooijakkers has special plans for the 49m2 free-standing in the Zaartpark of Breda. His work period starts on 21 December and lasts until 19 March 2025.

Through the act of digging, Roeland will investigate the relationship between giving and taking of a specific place. He will literally go into the depths to look for workable clay. He will then continue to explore how this found material – which he takes away from the place – can be returned in a circular way.

Roeland Rooijakkers is a visual artist who graduated in 2023 from the St. Joost School of Art & Design, specializing in autonomous visual arts. He lives and works in Rotterdam.

His practice is rooted in collecting, studying and transforming natural materials from the environment. He works with organic elements such as branches, grass, leaves and fungi, but also with inorganic materials such as soil, sand, stones and clay. These materials fascinate him because of their timeless, ancient presence, which goes back far before the origin of man. Because of their raw, unprocessed form, he considers them to be close to the origin of creation.

“When I work with these materials, I feel like a little alchemist,” says Roeland, “who can transform something ‘worthless’, such as rotting leaves, into something special.”

In his work, he explores the relationship between humans and the so-called ‘more-than-human’ entities that surround us. His creations give these non-human entities a new, tangible presence and invite reflection on our connectedness with the natural world.