Gathering at the Midnight Marsh

A collaboration with Zoë Palmer, Keir Vine and Jennie Moran. Hosted by VierNulVier, Kunstal Gent & DeKoer as part of the Openbare Werkin.

This project brought thoughtful and hospitable disruption from the wilder nightscapes of the marshes at the edges and underneath the city of Ghent, to the ordered urban shared spaces in the middle of the city. We used rituals of reciprocity, gifting, and notions of ‘placefulness’ to question who our public spaces are for, who and what feels welcome and safe in these spaces, and how we can challenge that.

What does the city need from the marsh? And what does the marsh need from the city?

What is the marsh saying that the city needs to hear?

What bits of the marsh remind you of yourself? – if you were a bit of this marshland, what would you be?

What are the possibilities for radical hospitality with the more than human world in this context?

We have been hosting night walks through the marshes of the city since November 2024. In May 2025, we brought the marsh to the centre of the city as part Openbare Werkin Festival.

Photos by Michiel Devijver.