The Netherlands is a palimpsest of peatland, shaped through drainage, water management and development. This workshop takes us into the Vondelpark and to look at the city through a different lens. To unearth the erased landscape and envision the reemergence of the swamp.

The workshop starts with a walk through the Vondelpark while listening to sound-pieces made with field recordings from wetlands. During the walk, stories of peatland are shared, ranging from the history of Dutch land management, to mythology and carbon sequestration. Provoked by the question “How can you see the erased swamp re-emerging? Where does it appear, and what does it reveal?” participants will observe the waterways and swampy grounds in the park with a magnifying lens, zooming into the wetland as it bubbles up through the cracks of hyper-manicured urban nature.

The workshop concludes with a creative exercise performed in pairs, that transforms these observations into written or visual expressions that illuminate the traces of wetlands still present in the Vondelpark.