ZwalmBE

The municipality of Zwalm, in the south of East Flanders in Belgium, comprises 13 villages with a total population of around 8,000 inhabitants. Its name is derived from the river Zwalm (or Zwalmbeek), which meanders as one of the main watercourses through an area of hilly woodland landscapes. Along its overgrown riverbanks, watermills still operate to mill flour and next to a working floodgate and its adjacent saving pond, one may end up with a freshly brewed coffee at Klein Zwitserland.

This former floodgate keeper’s cottage welcomes nowadays everyone as a snug forest bar as well as the starting and end point for visitors of the yearly rural art festival route Kunst&Zwalm.

Kunst&Zwalm is organised since 1997 as a biennial by the local initiative BOEM vzw and countless enthusiastic local hands, 2025 edition invited the artist collective Kunstenplatform PLAN B as curatorial team, who in turn invited local and international collectives and artists to think and learn together around the theme of soil (grond).

Wapke Feenstra, invited to participate, assembled a small local Myvillages team to return over multiple months to Klein Zwitserland and to meander with and along the river, in order to catch a glimpse of what actually lies beneath our feet and around us here in Zwalm.