Often dismissed as wastelands, peatlands are some of the planet’s
most powerful terrestrial carbon stores. Despite their crucial ecological importance, these ecosystems are subjected to extraction and degradation. Today, these ecosystems sit in a state of Limbo: suspended between protection and destruction, reverence and neglect.
Limbo challenges this narrative by offering visitors a chance to reimagine peatlands not only as climate assets but as complex cultural landscapes with intertwined histories, conflicts and futures in flux.
The exhibition brings together over 20 international artists, researchers, and collectives working across mediums including data visualization, cartography, archival research, educational tools, sound, and video installation.
The works first ground themselves in the unique peat histories of the Netherlands, uncovering legacies of drainage, labor, and land use. Then expanding to a broader perspective on European and global horticultural industries, as well as its entanglement with broader systems of imperialism, industrialization, and commodification.
Initiated by RE-PEAT and co-curated by Corinna Studier and Laisa Cordes, Limbo unfolds as both an exhibition and a discursive platform through accompanying workshops and events, inviting visitors to reflect on the ways (peat-)landscapes are shaped not only by natural processes, but by ideologies, economies, and imaginaries.
RE-PEAT are currently running a crowdfunding campagin to deliver an interactive program, making the exhibition more accessible, and creating materials that allow the topics to extend beyond the time and space of the exhibition itself.
