Gemene Grond has been in conversation with Utrecht Municipality since 2022 on the role art can play in a new housing development in Merwede district. The project goal is to foster interconnectedness among the different neighbourhoods.

To this end Merve Bedir has been commissioned to undertake research into the district that includes several neighbourhoods, such as Kanaleneiland, Transwijk, Merwede, Rivierenwijk, Dichterswijk. Merve aims: “to facilitate inhabitants and agencies invested in these neighbourhoods to be the co-owners and caretakers of the resulting commission for an artwork. Therefore, from the beginning, the research is on what is of commons, and the possibilities of commoning (in) Merwede.”

Who is Merve Bedir?

Merve Bedir has worked in developing and fast changing cities with complex contexts. Her practice deals with the infrastructures of hospitality and mobility. She attaches great importance to social and more than human design, the cooperation and participation of different inhabitants in architecture and urbanism, and pays attention to the rights to hospitality, to listen to whose voices/sounds are not (sufficiently) heard.

About the locality

Merwede is a district of Utrecht, where new housing is designed to be compact, sustainable, inclusive and a lively addition to the city. Carlijn Diesfeldt, curator at Gemene Grond:

“Developing a new quarter within an existing city demands careful attention to the interconnectedness with surrounding neighbourhoods. It’s important to focus not only on the new area but also to look carefully at how we can link up with the residents in adjoining districts. It’s important that residents in neighbouring districts aren’t just linked via cycle paths and walkways, but that they can really meet. That way we’ll create a social, engaged city. We think that art can make a positive contribution to achieving that.”