Sun 27 September
14:30–17:00
RICK DOLPHIJN in conversation with XANDRA VAN DER EIJK
As part of the finissage of our current exhibition THE EARTH IS THINKING ALL ALONG…, guest-curator Rick Dolphijn will engage in a conversation with artist Xandra van der Eijk on 27 September from 15:00 onwards. Departing from the work MOTHER OF PEARL, the conversation is set to revolve around the importance of (artistic) fieldwork, interdisciplinary collaborations, and working on the intersection of art, science and ecology.
In van der Eijk’s MOTHER OF PEARL, empty mussels appear to float in the core of RADIUS, accompanied by a soundscape specifically isolating the industrial sounds that pollute the river they once resided in. As the mussels are forced to share their bodies with the many shipping vessels traversing their space during their lives, the spectator of the installation now becomes subjected to the echoes of their suffering. In his essay accompanying MOTHER OF PEARL, Rick Dolphijn expands the understanding of these shells not only as witnesses of the passage of water and matter, but also of undercurrents. He pleads that the mussels and MOTHER OF PEARL as such not only document the mistreatment of a riverine ecology: it affects us in the act of revealing the surface that may contain the landscapes, the pollutions, the captialisms, the technologies, that have been flowing through the Rhine river.
IN CONVERSATION WITH is an ongoing series of conversations between artists and scientists, exploring how art and science—as related fields, practices and ways of thinking, through imagination, doubt and metaphors—seek new languages to make social and ecological change conceivable.
PRACTICAL INFORMATION
⌀ Date: Sunday 27 September 2026
⌀ 14:30 – 15:00: Doors open
⌀ 15:00 – 16:00: Rick Dolphijn in conversation with Xandra van der Eijk
⌀ 16:00 – 17:00: Drinks reception
⌀ Language: English
⌀ Free admission, R.S.V.P. required
⌀ Location: RADIUS Water Tower, Kalverbos 22
⌀ Note that the location is not wheelchair accessible. Please get in contact with us to discuss alternative ways to allow your participation.
SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES
XANDRA VAN DER EIJK is a Dutch artist and researcher, interested in the fluid, networked actors that constitute waterbodies. Central to their methodology is the concept of Materiality of Place, a term devised to describe how site-specific actors embody ecological, cultural, and political worlds and how these can be uncovered by engaging in artistic fieldwork, material experimentation and technological mediation.
RICK DOLPHIJN is a writer, teacher and curator whose work moves between philosophy, ecology and the arts. Trained in cultural theory and rooted in continental philosophy, he explores how humans live with—and as part of—more‑than‑human worlds, from wetlands and deltas to kitchens and city streets.
