Seeding Futures: On Biennales, Mediation, and Civic Imagination

In 2025, DutchCulture supported the Dutch-German project Post Ornamenta. This followed Ornamenta 2024, the cultural programme in the Black Forest in Germany that DutchCulture visited and published articles about.

For Post Ornamenta, Dutch curator Jules van den Langenberg collaborated with German natural heritage organisation, heritage sites and historians to research the impact of Ornamenta 2024 and its art installations on the landscape, local communities and (industrial) heritage sites.

Funded by our Europe + Heritage General Support Scheme, Jules van den Langenberg travelled to Germany to meet local partners. Together, they discussed what role heritage sites and historic architecture can play as resilient, culturally rooted infrastructures for contemporary art practices.

In the article below, Jules van den Langenberg and curator Misal Adnan Yıldız reflect on the aftermath of a biennial such as Ornamenta and alternative, more sustainable models to organise large-scale art events, better aligned with their environment and local communities. How can local engagement and international collaboration be rebalanced in long-term cultural planning?