Inside the Zoöp
How do you attune to an ecosystem, and let it change how you work? Meet the residents of Zoöp Connections and learn about their time in Vijfhuizen, Brienenoord, Mediamatic, and De Ceuvel.
What is a Zoöp?
A Zoöp is an organisation that includes more-than-human life - plants, animals, ecosystems - as a stakeholder in its own decision-making. Building on a successful first year, Zoöp Connections returns in 2026 with six international residencies hosted by Dutch Zoöps.
Zoöp Connections was born out of a simple but urgent question: as biodiversity loss and ecological degradation increase across Europe, how can cultural practice contribute to the health of the living world? Through the Zoöp model, the programme pairs European creatives with six pioneering Dutch cultural organisations (Zoöps) for 4 weeks of exchange, observation, and shared learning.About the Artists
Vilma Vanhanen is a Finnish multidisciplinary spatial artist, designer and a feminist whose work is driven by the question “why?”. She is currently finishing her master‛s studies in Interior Architecture at Aalto University, focusing on performance art as a research method—the politics of building demolition materials. Her work investigates themes around injustice, trauma, empathy and freedom combining activism, site-specific spatial installations, material exploration, and neurodivergent bodily experience.
Mia Milgrom is an artist and curator based in Prague, Czech Republic. In her work she is fascinated by the tension created by unstable and troubled environments, systems of support and the increasingly exhausted relations of the human and nonhuman world. Her sculptures and installations oscillate between the fragile moment of falling apart and an intuitive symbiosis of the elements. She co-runs an independent artist space and gallery in Prague, Garage Gallery.
Ella Prokkola is a landscape architect focusing on the climate and biodiversity crises, exploring the impacts of the posthuman paradigm on landscape architecture and advocating for multispecies thinking within construction culture. As an educator, she has taught landscape architecture at Aalto University and conducted workshops for both students and professionals in the UK, Switzerland, Estonia, and Finland.
Maryna Levchenko lives and works in Lviv. She works with visual media, including graphics, painting, photography, video art and installations. Her practice explores space, human fragility, memory and the feeling of home. Her work often combines architectural and natural heritage with traditional crafts, textiles, plastics and recycled materials in order to investigate the relationship between the individual experience and nature.
Information
The event opens with a conversation between the four residents and their hosts — an informal reflection on what they encountered, what surprised them, and how their time in the Zoöp has shaped their thinking and practice. This will be followed by an open exchange with the audience. More details on the programme and speakers will be shared closer to the date.
1st of October
17:00 - 19:00
Location: Mediamatic's Barn
Click here (online soon) to reserve your free entrance ticket!
For questions, please send an email to program@mediamatic.nl.
For any questions regarding accessibility please email: mail@mediamatic.nl.
About the Artists
Vilma Vanhanen is a Finnish multidisciplinary spatial artist, designer and a feminist whose work is driven by the question “why?”. She is currently finishing her master‛s studies in Interior Architecture at Aalto University, focusing on performance art as a research method—the politics of building demolition materials. Her work investigates themes around injustice, trauma, empathy and freedom combining activism, site-specific spatial installations, material exploration, and neurodivergent bodily experience.
Mia Milgrom is an artist and curator based in Prague, Czech Republic. In her work she is fascinated by the tension created by unstable and troubled environments, systems of support and the increasingly exhausted relations of the human and nonhuman world. Her sculptures and installations oscillate between the fragile moment of falling apart and an intuitive symbiosis of the elements. She co-runs an independent artist space and gallery in Prague, Garage Gallery.
Ella Prokkola is a landscape architect focusing on the climate and biodiversity crises, exploring the impacts of the posthuman paradigm on landscape architecture and advocating for multispecies thinking within construction culture. As an educator, she has taught landscape architecture at Aalto University and conducted workshops for both students and professionals in the UK, Switzerland, Estonia, and Finland.
Maryna Levchenko lives and works in Lviv. She works with visual media, including graphics, painting, photography, video art and installations. Her practice explores space, human fragility, memory and the feeling of home. Her work often combines architectural and natural heritage with traditional crafts, textiles, plastics and recycled materials in order to investigate the relationship between the individual experience and nature.
