about this book

What if traditional relationships—between humans and non-humans, plants, the weather, and the rhythm of the seasons—are being lost in the race for profit and increasingly intensive methods of production? In sixteen contributions, the interdisciplinary collective Seasonal Neighbours attempts to observe, record, and archive narratives of existing, disappearing, and newly emerging relationships in the countryside.

Both theoretical and artistic contributions serve as a guide for perceiving the agricultural landscape. As a collage-style field guide, Seasonal Matters Rural Relations addresses the role that artistic practices and fieldwork can play in the complexity of rural relations. The collective reflects on storytelling and explores a range of themes—from the evolution of metabolisms in horticulture and the changing rural landscape, to stories of European labor migration, questions of robotization and upscaling, domesticity, public space, and new forms of citizenship.

Seasonal Matters Rural Relations gathers different nuances of the agricultural realities experienced by the collective members in their neighbouring processes, working side by side with farmers, seasonal workers, plants, and crops. These fieldwork experiences helped shape a variety of contributions, ranging from visual essays to graphic collages, poems, maps, short stories, picking songs, and musical scores to intercultural recipes with wild plants.

With contributions by: Claire Chassot, Jonathan De Maeyer, Anastasia Eggers, Fernando Garcia-Dory (INLAND), Ciel Grommen, Pia Jacques, Carolien Lubberhuizen, Ioana Lupascu, Sébastian Marot, Karolina Michalik, Yacinth Pos, Caroline Profanter, Maximiliaan Royakkers, Ines Marita Schaerer, Arnd Spahn, Mona Thijs, and Ewoud Vermote.

This book was selected by Tique for Objects & Sounds.