Agenda 2025 > >
K L I K • H I E R • V O O R • N E D E R L A N D S > >
S U M M A R Y
E X H I B I T I O N S :
• [Tell me your name] The Walking Body, MINHO University Gallery at Guimaraes Portugal 2025.
• [ S.O.S. The Royal Galleries & the thermal baths of Ostend] Belgium 05.04 > 29.06.2025.
Group exhibition | auction at the initiative of the heritage association DEMENT Ostend Belgium 05.04 >29.06.2025. Theme: conservation, preservation, new destination of the thermal baths and the Royal Galleries. Location: Studio 221, Nieuwpoortsesteenweg 221, Ostend Belgium.
• [Like the Black Mulberry Tree • Zoals de Zwarte Moerbei] • a social art project/installation by Anna Maria Mestdagh & Stefaan van Biesen about interviews asbestos victims] • Location: fort Liefkenshoek, Ketenislaan 4, 9130 Beveren Belgium. From 23.02 > 25.05.2025.
E A R T H . C O N N E C T I O N S :
Mary Patricia Warming : Archive of Art/NaturSci Movement & Art Science Exhibits • Berlin Germany & USA 2025.
• Artists: Louise Beer [New Zeeland/UK] • Dave Biddle & David Ehrenreich [Canada] • Adam Crosson [USA], • Brent Dedas [USA] • Frederic Derieu & Nathalie Erin [France] • Manuela Fisher [Switzerland] • Nikolina Kovalenko [Russia] • Dr. Agniezka Kozlowska [Poland] • Jordan Lab [Max Planck Institute Germany] • Les Marneurs architectural Group [France/Belgium] • Gerardo Nolasco [Mexico] • Nina Schipoff [Switzerland] • Stefan Schlumpf [Switzerland] • Alisi Telengut [Canada/Mongolia] • Stefaan van Biesen [Belgium] • Rosa Vitrano [Italy] • MP Warming [Berlin/USA] founder • 2024.
P R O J E C T S :
• Member and co-founder|organizer of Made of Walking. Member of WALC [Walking Arts and Local Communities] a four-year international project, co-funded by the European Union through Creative Europe. The project aims to promote cooperation between communities in rural and natural settings by using walking as an artistic and participatory practice.
• [Like the Black Mulberry Tree • Zoals de Zwarte Moerbei] • a social art project about memorial trees & asbestos victims ] • vzw Stoff Sint-Niklaas [Johan De Vos], CC Ter Vesten Beveren 2025.
Stoff is a civic platform that seeks to repurpose special trees as urban and landscape memorials. This is in the context of asbestos victims, with hundreds more being diagnosed with lung cancer every year. The result of an ecological drama and concealed pollution for profit, which is an acute danger to public health. Together with the Beveren library, Annemie Mestdagh and Stefaan van Biesen created an educational school program on the theme of asbestos pollution, ecology and nature awareness.
• [Art of Connection] • Hof Ter Welle Beveren Belgium 25.01 > 02.02.2025.
An installation by Fred Adam with Geert Vermeire & Stefaan van Biesen. Location: chapel and congregation room. International artist project about connection in a more humane world - with educational section for school children from 10 years old.
This project is also a pilot project in preparation for a forthcoming Made Of Walking project in Prosperpolder Beveren in 2026.
L E C T U R E :
• [Walking & Drawing] > lecture during The Walking Body MINHO University Guimaraes Portugal > 09.04.2025.
W A L K S H O P :
• [Tell me your name] is a performative walk, in which you give a name to plants that grow in the wild (on the street between tiles, along walls or along the road), according to your own poetic approach.
At the MINHO University at Guimaraes Portugal | 07.04 > 12.04.2025
• [Like the Black Mulberry | Zoals de Zwarte Moerbei] Hortus walk Hof Ter Saksen Beveren 11.05.2025.
P U B L I C A T I O N :
• [ S.O.S. The Royal Galleries & the thermal baths of Ostend] Catalogue DEMENT Belgium 05.04 > 29.06.2025.
• [Drawing & Ecology] Publication drawings Psiax Magazine Minho University Guimaraes Portugal 2025.
W O R K • O N • P A P E R :
• [My Daily Longings] • Limited edition of prints on paper [Biotop paper A3] 2022-2025.
• [Oratio De Hominis Dignitate] • Drawings & visions • an artistic research about the human condition 2025.
• [Wanderings | The Dürer Connection] • Drawings & registrations artistic, ecological projects 1990 > 2025.
A R T I S T I C • R E S E A R C H :
• [The Veronica Suite] • contemporary nomad stories based on the painting of Robert Campin [1378-1444] 2025.
E N G A G E M E N T S :
• Co-founder and member of the Milena principle • international independent art platform 2000-2025.
• Founding Member of the Art/NaturSci Movement • international art & ecology project 2019-2025.
• Member of ArtScie Exhibits community Berlin Germany Humboldt University • Mary Patricia Warming (USA).
• Member of Like the Black Mulberry, Memorial tree & asbestos project Belgium 2024 > 2025.
• Member of the Grand Jury, Sound Walk September Awards of walk · listen · create (WLC) 2025.
• Member and co-organizer of WALK [Walking Arts and Local Communities] a four-year international project, co-funded by the European Union through Creative Europe. The project aims to promote cooperation between communities in rural and natural settings by using walking as an artistic and participatory practice.
A R C H I V E • E S T A T E :
• The CKV (Centrum Kunstarchieven Vlaanderen/ Center for Art Archives of Flanders) is a central hub for the distributed care of art archives and estates. It is an operationally autonomous organization within M HKA (Museum Hedendaagse Kunst Antwerpen/ Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp), focused on the preservation, sustainable public access and active fielding of visual art archives in public and private management.
The private Van Biesen-Mestdagh Foundation manages the archives of the Milena principle (independent international art platform), Wit Urban-Team and Stefaan van Biesen's own artistic legacy and is in consultation with the CVK CKV [Nele Luyts, Jan Stuyck, Emma Sinnesael].
• The Private Foundation Van Biesen-Mestdagh • [Estate] 2005-2025.
• the Milena Principle • independent, international art platform • [Estate] 2000-2025.
• WIT Urban-Team : action group • art interventions • [Estate] 2010-2014.
R E P R E S E N T E D B Y :
• the Milena principle • independed international art platform. (Since 2003).
• Art/NaturSci Movement • international art community & ecology project Berlin.
• Walk-Listen-Create • international platform for walking artists.
• Gallery Ysebaert • Maenhoutstraat 60, 9830 Sint-Martens-Latem Belgium.
• Gallery S & H De Buck • Zuidstationsstraat 25 9000 Ghent Belgium.
W I K I P E D I A :
• research/publishing Wikipedia pages on deceased or still active artists who have made significant contributions to the world of the arts, both pedagogically and for their artistic legacy.
See last year agenda 2024 > >
Info about the projects in 2025 > >
Like the Black Mulberry | Zoals de Zwarte Moerbei
Hortus Walk, Hof Ter Saksen, Beveren — 11.05.2025
In the early years of the new millennium, Stefaan van Biesen initiated a series of walks centered on public reflection around the roots of sawn-off trees. This collective practice inspired letters, drawings, and artworks, culminating in the sculpture Her-Steller (Restorer)—installed in 2006 near the Sint-Martinus Church in Massemen, Wetteren, and commissioned by the Province of East Flanders as part of A Home for a Statue | Een thuis voor een beeld.
Unlike the classical Greek myth of Daphne, this work emerged from an ecological and social dialogue. The sawn-off tree trunk became a natural platform—a stage provided by nature itself—for speakers and reflection, creating a sanctuary for meaningful discourse and shared experiences.
On 11 May 2025, participants in the Hortus walk gathered at this natural Speaker’s Corner as part of Like the Black Mulberry | Zoals de Zwarte Moerbei, a project honoring trees as living memorials. Here, the mulberry tree stands as a powerful symbol commemorating the numerous victims of asbestos-related illnesses in the Sint-Niklaas, Beveren, and Antwerp harbor regions.
Tree talkers: Stefaan van Biesen, Eteinne D'Hollander, Christa Maes, Rika Van de Walle, Hilde Reyniers, ...
The Walking Body (TWB) is an international meeting of walking artists. The 2025 meeting is dedicated to ‘communities of change’, communities that are plural, on the move, and sensitive to issues of the social and natural ecology of the environment in which we live.
Photo by Rosario Forjaz
Tell me your name is a performative walk and ritual in which participants assign new, poetic names to wild plants growing in unexpected urban spaces—between pavement cracks, along walls, or roadside. Scientific names are set aside in favor of intuitive, personal naming that captures the plant’s character, beauty, or its meaning in relation to oneself or the group. This act fosters a fresh, intimate connection with nature and invites shared reflection.
“Weeds” exist only in our minds—plants we label as such simply because we don’t cultivate them in our gardens or parks. This exercise invites you to reflect on your place in society by using these plants as metaphors, associating yourself with them and considering their role in the natural world in relation to human society.
TWB explores local communities as dynamic entities in constant transformation, connecting people, territories and ecologies through movement, the art of walking and the relationship between the city and the landscape of Guimarães TWB will take place from 26th of March to 12th of April in Guimarães, in Bairro C, with the meeting point at the Garagem Avenida Gallery/School of Architecture, Art and Design.
TWB includes a week of walkshops, a round table with the invited artists and an exhibition (26 March to 17 April). This event is free of charge. Anyone interested in art and the act of walking can take part in these actions.
The walkshops take place throughout the week from 7th to 12th of April, on walks around the area with a focus on Bairro C, and the meeting point will be the Avenida EAAD Garage Gallery (Av. Dom Afonso Henriques 250). TWB has 7 artists taking part in the workshops: Geert Vermeire (BE), Jordi Lafon (ES), Miguel B Duarte (PT), Montsita Rierola (ES), Natacha Antão (PT), Stefaan Van Biesen (BE) and Rosa Soares (PT).
S.O.S. The Royal Galleries & the thermal baths of Ostend Belgium 05.04 > 29.06.2025.
Exhibited during three months in three galleries : Theobalds Boathouse, Vlaanderenstraat 17, 8400 Ostend | Studio 221, Nieuwpoortsesteenweg 221, 8400 Ostend | CAS - Contemporary Art Space, Frans Musinstraat 19, Ostend 8400. The exhibitions are free to visit.
Photo: ‘A Passage In Time’ by Stefaan van Biesen [2024]: design of an original postcard in 2D or bas-relief, Format: 10.5 x 20 cm. Drawing on Steinbach paper, acrylic, plexi and forex.
The exhibition runs for three months across three galleries in Ostend: Theobalds Boathouse (Vlaanderenstraat 17), Studio 221 (Nieuwpoortsesteenweg 221), and CAS – Contemporary Art Space (Frans Musinstraat 19).
This initiative was launched last year in response to the controversy over the renovation of the Thermes and Gaanderijen. The then-city council approved a plan to build approximately 15,588 square meters of apartments and parking on the site. Heritage group Dement Oostende vzw quickly mobilized, organizing campaigns to reverse the decision. To support their efforts in heritage preservation, one-third of the proceeds from the sale of the unique artworks will be donated to the association.
Like the Black Mulberry | a social art project/installation by Anna Maria Mestdagh & Stefaan van Biesen about interviews with asbestos victims • Location: fort Liefkenshoek,Ketenislaan 4, 9130 Beveren Belgium. From 23.02 > 25.05.2025.
Guided tree walk and conversation on asbestos. Joint walk to the installation on the dike of Fort Liefkenshoek led by Stefaan van Biesen and Annemie Mestdagh. We listened to some excerpts from interviews with asbestos victims or their relatives and to ‘Herinneringen aan een militair bastion’ by Hilde Reyniers. We meet in the officers' quarters where Johan De Vos, inspirer of Stoff vzw, tells a story about the route of asbestos from its origins to the port of Antwerp. Afterwards, we engage in conversation.
Like the Black Mulberry is an initiative trail in collaboration with Stoff vzw, Stefaan van Biesen & Annemie Mestdagh, Meulenberg BinnensteBuiten, the Bib, Hortus ter Saksen and the Department of Culture and Nature Development. Through four guided tree walks, we will engage in dialogue.
It started in November 2023 with a new "letter to a tree" and it was an artistic, social-ecological stain that spontaneously expanded. We are developing this connecting project in collaboration with many local partners: artists, experts, doctors, writers and stakeholders.
After quite a few group meetings, worked out a broad, educational and promising school program (also collaborations with the libraries), where we could of course draw on previous Milena principle ideas of our own.
This participatory project aims to identify and preserve special commemorative trees before they disappear. The black mulberry, in particular, has become a powerful symbol for the many asbestos victims in Sint-Niklaas. Yet asbestos continues to claim lives daily in the region stretching from the Port of Antwerp to the inland areas.
For years, the deadly effects of asbestos—including lung cancer—were covered up in pursuit of profit, harming thousands of local factory workers. This was not ignorance but a crime driven by economic gain and private wealth.
Thanks to the efforts of many advocates, the black mulberry tree has been designated a protected natural monument. On September 22, 2024, it was officially dedicated as a memorial tree for the victims of asbestos.
The Art Of Connection | Hof Ter Welle Beveren Belgium 25.01 > 02.02.2025.
A project with Fred Adam with Geert Vermeire & Stefaan van Biesen. Location: chapel and congregation room. International artist project about connection in a more humane world - with educational section for school children from 10 years old.
In January, they will bring their collaborative project No One Forgotten - The Art of Connection to Beveren. This project is about how artists from different countries can collaborate with local communities to heal landscapes using walking art, artist residencies and digital art. No One Forgotten builds on Stefaan and Geert's previous projects, Made of Walking and the Milena Principle, which connected artists from across Europe.
The project includes artists from Belgium, Portugal, Italy and Greece, some with disabilities, and ends in Beveren with a partly digital exhibition, walking activities, and group performances in the chapel and garden of Hof ter Welle from Jan. 26 to Feb. 2. This event builds on Made of Walking, a European project started by Stefaan and Geert that brings together artists for walking art in rural areas.They are already developing this project in natural areas in Catalonia, Greece and in northern Portugal, with Beveren as their next stop.
The core of their work is hospitality and collectivity. Their art emphasizes connections in a more-than-human world. The exhibition and group activities offer young people and adults the chance to experience new forms of art that merge technology, performance and nature.
Lecture Made Of Walking 01.02.2025.
About the history and future plans of Made of Walking.
This project is also a pilot project in preparation for a forthcoming Made Of Walking project in Prosperpolder Beveren in 2026. Lecture/talk on the origins and future of Made of Walking.
Artists Stefaan van Biesen, Geert Vermeire, and Fred Adam foster connections—between people and with nature—embracing new technologies as part of their creative process. Their work goes beyond visual observation; it invites active participation, emphasizing physical movement and collective experience. By engaging the senses, they cultivate deeper bonds with the living environment. Stefaan focuses on walking art and the intersection of nature and science, Fred explores digital art and technology, while Geert blends poetry with sound and performance. Together, they use art as a tool to explore and address pressing social and ecological challenges.
Upcoming projects 2025 > >
Earth Connections & Mary Patricia Warming
(Berlin/USA, Curator of ArtScie Exhibits Community Berlin – Humboldt University)
Earth Connections will launch an online gallery based in Berlin in 2024, with agents in the United States. Gallery Green aims to attract art collectors passionate about both art and environmental sustainability. As we continue to focus on the environment through our collection, the value of our art is expected to grow.
Art Science Exhibits Berlin has partnered with a social media and communications specialist through the Erasmus Young Entrepreneurs Program to support this new venture and its promotions. Natalia Góral, relocating to Berlin from Poland, will join the team alongside Max Kuhn, a CIEE student intern.
Stefaan van Biesen 2020. Earth Collections, the Permanent Collection of the Art / NaturSci Movement
Artists: Louise Beer [New Zeeland/UK] • Dave Biddle & David Ehrenreich [Canada] • Adam Crosson [USA], • Brent Dedas [USA] • Frederic Derieu & Nathalie Erin [France] • Manuela Fisher [Switzerland] • Nikolina Kovalenko [Russia] • Dr. Agniezka Kozlowska [Poland] • Jordan Lab [Max Planck Institute Germany] • Les Marneurs architectural Group [France/Belgium] • Gerardo Nolasco [Mexico] • Nina Schipoff [Switzerland] • Stefan Schlumpf [Switzerland] • Alisi Telengut [Canada/Mongolia] • Stefaan van Biesen [Belgium] • Rosa Vitrano [Italy] • MP Warming [Berlin/USA] founder •
About Art Science Exhibits Berlin
Founded and continually reimagined by international artist mp Warming, Art Science Exhibits Berlin is an independent platform created by artists and scientists. Our exhibitions and public programs expand the dialogue between art and science, focusing on positivity and actionable solutions. Our mission is to support the future of nature-kind through meaningful collaboration and creative engagement.
Time is pressing
In over 4.5 billion years of geological history, Earth’s carbon cycle has rarely faced extremes as severe as those we see today. We—and countless other species—are in urgent peril. The immediate impacts of climate change, human-driven destruction of forests and oceans, and the profound effects on our daily lives are undeniable. This crisis fuels the resolve of many to act decisively.
In response, Art Science Exhibits Berlin has cultivated one of the most solution-oriented partnerships possible—working at the intersection of art, science, and community to confront these challenges head-on.
