BoerenzijNL
Boerenzij (the rural side) is a former nickname for Rotterdam-South. In the 20th century the term was used disparagingly to refer to the rural migrant workers and their families that settled in neighborhoods near the Rotterdam harbours on the south bank of the Maas.
The residents of this new district were rural labour migrants, initially from North Brabant, Zeeland and Southern Europe, and later from Morocco, Turkey, Suriname and the Antilles, and more recently - Eastern Europe. These newcomers were implicitly expected to leave their rural culture and knowledge behind, just as local farmers were expected to relinquish fields to make way for the city.
Rotterdam-South has been the organisational home of Myvillages since 2003. It is also the home of Wapke Feenstra, her studio and the archive of Myvillages.
In 2003 we officially launched Myvillages (then called myvillages.org) as a shared cultural space for opening up the rural as a working place for artists. Fed up with the ubiquity of urban cultural hegemony, we self-organised ways of thinking together, working within and publishing about the rural as a particularity without any urge to define it.
| Region | South Holland |
|---|---|
| Local partners |
|
| Population | 240 165 |
| Common fruit, vegetables, animals | Harbour, cats and rats, penthouses |
| Tradition | Wereldhavendagen, NN North Sea Jazz Festival |
| Scent | Fresh cold sea wind, Quaker cruesli granola |
| Distances from Boerenzij | Distances |
| Coordinators | Wapke Feenstra |
The BOERENZIJ Project Begins
The BOERENZIJ was launched in 2018 by Wapke Feenstra, at the invitation of Anke Bangma, the artistic director of TENT. It is an art project created with and by citizens of Rotterdam that places rural migration, mindsets, memories, objects, and drawings in the midst of the ongoing gentrification of Rotterdam-Zuid. Boerenzij calls for a critical awareness of the unquestioned, naturalized way in which rural culture is being urbanized worldwide. To create this awareness, it is important to draw attention to global issues by unraveling the layers of the places we live in, shaping new visions of how we want to see the rural and relate to it.
Boerenzij (translated as The Rural Side, literally Farmers’ Side) is the old, once derogatory nickname for the southern part of Rotterdam. It refers to its population, which has historically consisted largely of rural migrants from the Dutch countryside, Southern Europe, Morocco, Turkey, and other countries. This migration began over a century ago during the construction of the Rotterdam ports on the south bank of the river Maas. The harbor and surrounding greenhouses, both requiring a large labor force, continue to attract new residents to this day.
In 2018–2019, we met, talked, and gathered over the course of a year with rural migrants to the Boerenzij - people who had left behind their farmlands or villages to gain education, due to economic hardship, war, expropriation, climate change. We visited farmers and land workers aged over 85, who still had lively memories of the disruptive war and their farming activities on the south bank. All have enriched the Boerenzij by combining their rural mindsets with local soil and urban lifestyles.
During the first project year, we cooked kale, read poetry aloud, drew en-plein-air and sang folk songs to celebrate the Boerenzij. The project unfolded at a pivotal moment: as we met the oldest generation of farmers, many nearly 90 years old, who witnessed the accelerating gentrification of the area. Over the past decade, large-scale capital investments have increasingly displaced long-time residents from the South of Rotterdam.
This project's layered, micro-level analysis contributes to a broader concern about urbanization. It calls for deeper reflection on how we can re-root ourselves collectively and learn from rural cultures and knowledge, instead of erasing them.
| Region | South Holland |
|---|---|
| Local partners |
|
| Population | 240 165 |
| Common fruit, vegetables, animals | Harbour, cats and rats, penthouses |
| Tradition | Wereldhavendagen, NN North Sea Jazz Festival |
| Scent | Fresh cold sea wind, Quaker cruesli granola |
| Distances from Boerenzij | Distances |
| Coordinators | Wapke Feenstra |