Amstelpark

Zone2Source is a testing ground for art and ecology in Amsterdam's Amstelpark. Since 2013, they have been using Amstelpark—designed for the 1972 Floriade—as a living lab for artistic research and art projects in collaboration with artists, exploring how to reimagine humanity's role in the ecosystem. In three pavilions, two artist gardens, and various outdoor locations within the park, they organize exhibitions, outdoor projects, residencies, long-term research programs, performances, soundwalks, workshops, and discussions where they engage people with artists in a search for new imaginations and practices for a better society on a planet shared with many species.

In recent years, they have engaged in discussions with the Municipality of Amsterdam to transform Amstelpark into a testing ground and learning space for the city. As part of Amsterdam's 750th anniversary celebrations, they have challenged the municipality to manage Amsterdam for the next 750 years as a city of trillions of lives, rather than one million people. Zoöp Amstelpark is the place where they experiment together and learn which political and legal systems, design, planning, maintenance, and so on, they need to develop for a radically inclusive society in which every life truly matters. After a series of explorations with the municipality, after which an initiative proposal submitted to the alderman for democratization was positively reviewed by the city council, Zone2Source, together with the Municipality of Amsterdam, launched Zoöp Amstelpark on October 4th. The day before, they organized the first MultiSpecies Assembly in this context, together with artist Elmo Vermijs, their speakers for the living, and many others (see photo). As the first public Zoöp, they have opted for a Council of Speakers for the Living, starting with Anne de Andrade and Theun Karelse, and they will expand in the coming period with, for example, a youth council of speakers. The Amsterdam Sustainability Institute of Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam and the MBO Urban Greening Yuverta have also joined as partners of Zoöp Amstelpark. In this way, they develop as a learning environment where citizens, together with policymakers, experiment with how to incorporate the interests of all living beings. With the initiative to establish a public Zoöp, Zone2Source is exploring the role of art and artistic methods in relation to policy issues in the urgent transition to an eco-centric society.