Oemoemenoe: Hedwigepolder
Carly Rose Bedford
Walk
28 March 2026
1 – 3 pm
Café Het Verdronken Land
€8.5Tickets
Program: 2pm – 4pm (bus and own transport arrival: 1:45pm, departure: 4:15pm)
Starting point: Café Het Verdronken Land Koninginnestraat 21, Nieuw Namen
Buy your tickets for this event here
Tickets for the bus + snack: €8.50
Tickets own transport: free (please make sure to reserve a spot through the link above)
Bus from Middelburg and Terneuzen
12pm: Departure Loskade Middelburg
1pm: Departure Nesse (gather at 12:45 PM)
1:45pm: Arrival Land of Saeftinghe
Bus from Antwerp
12:45pm: Departure P+R Linkeroever
1:45pm: Arrival Land of Saeftinghe
Return bus to Middelburg and Terneuzen
4:15pm: Departure
5pm: Arrival Nesse Terneuzen
5:45pm: Arrival Middelburg
Return bus to Antwerp
4:15pm: Departure
5:15pm: Arrival P+R Linkeroever
This spring sculptor, researcher and dramaturg Carly Rose Bedford presents new work as part of Vleeshal’s Oemoemenoe site-specific series.
Building on Bedford’s ongoing research into swamps, this afternoon explores the collapsing of ecology, industry, and local culture around the Verdronken Land van Saeftinghe, the largest remaining tidal marsh in Western Europe. Primarily known as a nature reserve, the ‘Verdronken Land’ holds layers of history, floodings, and social conflict at the interface of farming, environmentalism and heavy industry.
Bedford will welcome a group of visitors for an afternoon around the Verdronken Land and into the Hedwigepolder. The Hedwigepolder, located between the Verdronken Land and the gargantuan port of Antwerp, is a heavily contested area. In 2005, it was decided to return the polder to the sea to restore nature in the Westerschelde. It took 17 years of political conflict to carry this out.
The program will end at the Café Het Verdronken Land for a ‘Heksenborrel’ – a liquor infused with local botanicals.
This project builds upon Bedford’s AIRZeeland Pilot residency in the winter of 2025. AIRZeeland is a residency program organized by Mostly Modern Festival, Theaterproductiehuis Zeeland and Vleeshal with the support of Provincie Zeeland.
Events
28 March
Oemoemenoe: Hedwigepolder
1 – 3 pm
Café Het Verdronken Land
€8.5Persons
Series
Oemoemenoe started in 2023 as part of the Local Nomadic Program. For Oemoemenoe, contemporary artists are invited to develop a project in collaboration with local associations and businesses in Zeeland - sports clubs, swimming pools, hotels, and restaurants. We bring visitors into contact with contemporary art in various special places in Zeeland and invite artists who give us possible directions on which way to go. They question, each in their own way, the accepted norm through their artistic practice.