Guillem S. Arquer is a human art practitioner and researcher based in Rotterdam. His practice could be defined as trans-media and it develops from a deep interest in site-specificity, improvisation and the poetic materiality of found objects. He is interested in the conceptual and technological infrastructures that support the bipolar world-views that obfuscate the connection of the human species with the Earth's ecosystems. Alongside his research interest in 'naturecultures', he tries to reimagine and develop what an art practice tuned to more-than-human worlds can be.
‘Compost samples’ (2023), Springboard Art Fair, Utrecht. In collaboration with Kate Price. - Watered compost samples from different gardening/green iniciatives in the city of Rotterdam. Photo: Silvia Arenas.
‘Composting structures’ (2023), Springboard Art Fair, Utrecht. In collaboration with Kate Price - The presentation of the artists for Springboard Art Fair results from the material fermented during their 3 month residency at the Goethe Institut in Rotterdam. Their research project 'Investigating: Humus communities in Rotterdam' revolved around the notion of 'humusities', being understood as a term that brings together the many entanglements between humans and humus - the organic component of soil, formed through activities of decomposition by soil ecosystems. Through site visits and discussions held with Rotterdammers involved in compost making, the artists endeavored to be in contact with, and learn from, their collective knowledge towards positive relationships with soil. This project constituted an attempt to raise awareness of the potential of city generated organic waste as an important and beneficial medium through which to re-evaluate the relationship between human and more-than-human agencies in urban ecologies. Photo: Silvia Arenas.
‘Investigating: Humus communities in Rotterdam’ (2023), Goethe-Institute Niederlande, Rotterdam. In collaboration with Kate Price. - Research residency period at Goethe Institut Rotterdam, Feb-Apr 2023.
Together with Kate Price, this three month collaborative research residency aimed to work with the collective knowledge of the peoples of Rotterdam involved in compost making in order to learn from their positive relationships with soil. This project constituted an attempt to raise awareness of the potential of city generated organic waste as an important and beneficial medium through which to re-evaluate the relationship between human and more-than-human agencies in urban ecologies. This research project involved a mapping of and site visits to Rotterdam collectives involved in compost making. During these visits, focus was placed on the composting facilities of these sites, following their branchings and leakages to learn more about the stories, people, knowledges and ideas that sustain these green cracks of the urban. Documentation amassed alongside these introductions formed an archive of conversations, notes, soundscapes, video, drawings, photographs, compost and soil samples: a symbolic and literal Rotterdam humus. Alongside research conducted on location, studio based material-medium experimentations were explored to develop potential ways of relating and sharing compost. This process of site-visiting and studio incubating enabled their “studio compost” to be continually fed, as we became its maintainers in reflective dialogue with the pile’s knowledge accumulations. During the residency period a group reading session titled 'sharing humusities' took place for the Art Central Rotterdam XL 2023 weekend, and a public end presentation was held in April to detail our experiences. Photo: Silvia Arenas
‘new “mundus” ritual (trench composting 1)’ (2023), studio dreams, Rotterdam. - Organic household "waste" offering to garden soil community. Photo: Silvia Arenas.
detail of ‘untitled (non-definitive cumulation of composting diagrams)’ (2022) - Photo: Silvia Arenas.
‘untitled (non-definitive cumulation of composting diagrams)’ (2022), Wild Summer of Art Part I, BRUTUS, Rotterdam.
‘Tubular cavities of heat’ (2022), Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam - Sonic performance/experimental listening session at the boiler room on the first floor of the PZI building on the 06/04/2022, marking the end of the 3 month research residency period at the Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, NL. Photo: Rick van der Klooster.
‘Introduction to composting’ (2021), Piet Zwart Institute Rotterdam. In collaboration with Kate Price. - Introduction to composting, workshop organised and conducted with Guillem S. Arquer, Piet Zwart Institute, Rotterdam, August 2021 - Workshop held to introduce and explain our newly formed compost structure to the PZI community, culminating in a lunch prepared from produce of our communal garden. Photo by Steven Maybury.
‘untitled (compost rubbings)’ (2021), Piet Zwart MFA Graduation Show, Het Archief, Rotterdam - The TL lights of the exhibition space were intervened by rubbing the composting materials against them and consequently filtering the light in the space with mowed grass, compostable trash bags, aged compost, fellow students household organic waste, bacteria, fungi and protozoa, among others. Photo: Nick Thomas.
‘untitled (a forest after rain)’ (2021), Piet Zwart MFA Graduation Show, Het Archief, Rotterdam. - The installation consisted of a container placed in the electrical switch room adjacent to the exhibition space in which a compost heap was kickstarted and was fed through the duration of the show. A fan installed on top of the drilled container directed the smell produced by the composting container from the switch room to the exhibition space through a ventilation grid on the wall.
