Niel de Vries

nature, country art, Ecology, D.I.Y, Community, Artistic research

Born below sea level and the son of a pump mechanic, water was a topic of conversation at the dinner table from an early age. Now it is a recurring theme in my artistic practice. Whether it flows through riverbeds or is pumped through pipes, I investigate manifestations of water that intrigue me, with attention to both the ecological and the technical aspects.
To fuel my practice, I take field trips along rivers, join scientists in the field, or scour riverbanks and beaches for washed-up materials. I bring these elements together—adding, painting over, reorienting, and repurposing—to create assemblage-like objects that I call “narrative tools.” These are often functional objects that bring together found materials, stories, and personal memories. I use a variety of techniques to make these tools, including woodworking, ceramics, soldering, drawing, and watercolor.

I consider water as a ‘common good’ and therefore often work in public spaces, where I organise meetings or set up interventions that make water-related topics discussable. The narrative instruments that I build often play a role in these meetings and direct the attention of the participants. Given the transient nature of these interventions, I use recording techniques such as photography, sound recordings and drawings to build an archive that feeds my practice. With my work I want to bring liquid issues into the public domain. In doing so, I see myself as an improvising organiser, an amateur naturalist, a bricoleur on the waterfront.

**Underneath the Masticating Table (MOTHS collective)** - For the research residency of the collective MOTHS at Spreepark Art Space – located in East Berlin in the former GDR – we took the food culture of a country that no longer exists as a starting point. We digested our research into a speculative menu of 18 dishes. The work consists of a rotating lazy susan on which seven ceramic dishes from the menu are presented, together with a set of Jingdezhen porcelain. The tableware reinterprets the traditional German Zwiebelmuster by depicting two of the park’s neobiota: Reynoutria japonica and Ailanthus altissima. Outside the gallery, a historical porcelain tableware found in the river Spree is exhibited alongside the full menu. In collaboration with the adjacent restaurant EI-12437B, five of the speculative dishes were adapted and included in their menu. MOTHS collective consists of Yujia Ban, Xiaolu Yan, Hanwen Zhang and Niel de Vries Ceramic production: Yansuan and Dalida Georgiou-Achmet Photo: Frank Sperling, 2025, Spreepark Art Space

**Hydrophore** - In the work I search for the origins of my interest in water. My father worked most of his life for a company that made pumps. When I was a child and he talked about his work during dinner, the jargon he used, such as 'hydrophore', appealed to my imagination. In the work I show here I try to get closer to him by working with forms he would have seen a lot and with the techniques he used. 2025

**European Pavilion : Liquid Becomings - When all you have is a hammer** - Can the river inspire us to imagine new forms of belonging? During my journey on the Danube, I was struck by how the many border crossings we passed were made possible by a simple yet powerful tool: the passport. Using clay I found along the riverbanks, I made replicas of this document, reinterpreting it – not as a symbol of national identity, but as an expression of solidarity with the river and the communities living along its banks. The work consists of a written instruction for making a river passport, together with two examples made during the journey, and a workshop in which participants can create their own passport. 2024

In A Wet Context — **In a Wet Context** - Over the course of a year, explorations along and on the Scheldt began to form a collection of materialized riverbank stories. Various found objects, combined with ceramics, tell the stories I encountered during my wanderings – about mythical sturgeons, migrating Chinese mitten crabs, and a traveling river source. What connects these stories is an undercurrent that focuses on the irrational, the meandering, and the agency of the river. The narrative objects are made mobile by means of a backpack made of driftwood and are activated in a series of performative walks. 2024

**The Collective Imagining of the River Scheldt** - Rivers are imaginary spaces onto which dreams and desires are projected. From visions of economic growth via canalized waterways to spiritual relationships with water gods, rivers speak to the imagination. As they are developed and reserved for industry and shipping, rivers become increasingly distant from individuals. Who gets to act out these aspirations? Who and what they encompass drifts away from those who live along their banks. As a gesture to foster a personal, direct relationship with the river, I temporarily transformed the Antwerp ferry into the 'Research Vessel for Collective Imagination of the Scheldt'. On board, I placed tables in the shape of cut-off meanders of the Scheldt, which served as workstations. Here, unsuspecting travelers became co-researchers, participating in simple exercises that evoked watery imaginations. Through drawing, photography and writing, a bottom-up image of the river emerged. With this work I want to create an alternative space to relate to the river – a space that bypasses the grand narratives and instead focuses on direct, personal imagination. 2024

**Watery Tales** - Rivers are like braids that constantly weave new paths and ways of life. Stories of all kinds settle on their banks. In an attempt to become one with the river, I spend time there, collect objects, create tools and follow the meandering paths I encounter. During performative moments I activate these objects and tell stories that, like the river, are always in motion and always take different courses. 2023

**Bottle Camera** - A floating imaging instrument for detailed water research, made from a washed-up detergent bottle with a small camera in it. This device allows close-up images from the waterline. What does the river look like from the perspective of plastic waste? In December 2023 I traveled with the Bottle Camera from Antwerp to the source of the Scheldt, capturing images along the way.

**River Time** - When the Scheldt is low tide, a small beach becomes accessible, full of washed-up objects that are partly formed by the river: driftwood, plastic waste, glass bottles. These things are partly part of the river, and the river is partly made of them. I brought some of these objects to the studio and created, through small interventions, a musical network of Scheldt-Things that refers both visually and aurally to the time of the river—a time that moves slower than human time and has been part of the earth for longer. The musical composition is a sonification of the water levels in the river: the pitch drops when the water level drops and rises when the level rises. 2023

**Field concerns** - Lookout post built in an industrial corn field on the occasion of the Watou Arts Festival 2023. During the festival, various events were organized on and around the lookout platform.

**The Chestnut Hut** - A chestnut observation hut in the garden of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts in Antwerp. Clad with leftover wood from construction sites and driftwood from the Scheldt. I create a space that removes most human elements from view and allows us to observe the intricate structures of trees from up close. During the six weeks that the hut is in the garden, various events will be organised around the theme of belonging. Kate Hughes will give the workshop Making Artefacts for a Queer-Feminist Revolution. Baptiste Godbert will give two performances in the hut, focusing on ritual and the initiation of a place. Tom Froy will talk about what it means to belong somewhere. I have also slept in the hut. 2022

**Fragments** - Publication with drawings, photos and text made as a result of a residency at Knockvologan Studies in Scotland. I try to relate to the ruins of old farming settlements, called 'crofts', that dot the landscape. (2022)

**Gaia** - Intervention in Snijders&Rockoxhuis in Antwerp. Earthen spheres made from contaminated soil are brought into the museum of a former mayor of Antwerp, thus injecting a current subject into a historical space. (2021)

**24 days** - How does matter decay? What arises in this process of transience? 24 brass plates, from no corrosion to a corrosion time of 24 days. (2021) 2020

This artist has no awards yet.