photo by Jedidja Smalbil, Woldzigt Linseed Oil Mill, Roderwolde
This story starts at Woldzigt, a linseed oil mill close to the Onlanden, a wetland area and a water storage at the edge of Groningen, reclaimed in 2000. During a walk in the Onlanden I saw some children playing with water toy guns in the rain, on the edge of this wetland. That same day I saw a map of the area from the 18th century in the living quarters of the mill. The whole area was not yet fully drained at that point, I was told it was “very wet back then”. I thought of those inhabitants of what is now the Onlanden, the ways they dressed and how they lived with the swamp.
The word habit refers as much to costumes or garments as to repetitive, involuntary actions. I imagine that living with the habitat of the swamp requires a lot of special habits: making clothes that keep you dry, an attitude to the living world around you, many repetitive actions, such as sowing, harvesting, kneading, weaving, tying knots, grinding, walking, rowing. These activities have been historically accompanied by singing.
Annie Proulx writes about communities that, across history, resisted their displacement from and the destruction of the wetlands. They ate, lived, clothed and found refuge in the swamp. But what kind of living with the swamp are we talking about, when there is barely any swamp left? The state of swamps and other wet areas in the world is as dramatic as it is in The Netherlands. There is an estimated 20% of wetland left worldwide.What kind of skins should we grow or inhabit to cohabit with the small percentage of swamps left or the few being reclaimed?
Our world has never been just land or water, it is a continuous transformation from one to another degree of wetness. Merging the mill and the swamp happened through research into waterproof garments created out of linen soaked in hot linseed oil, fabric known in English as oilskins. They are historically worn by farmers, shepherds, fishermen, sailors, millers - occupations involved in the ongoing transformation of the wetness of the earth. The Oilskins are garments, sculptures and story carriers at the same time. They are accompanied by a choir performance called Droog Zullen we Zinken (Dry Shall we Sink), a collaboration with Japke Hartog and the choir of Roderwolde.
