For this ‘Wat Maakt West’ edition, she is creating a temporary artwork at the Westplein made from sustainable materials, along with a podcast series that can be listened to. As she herself says:

“The concentrated energy of Poppy Seed can be released once again. The poppy seed waits for the right moment to germinate. Just by tuning in, many thoughts about the Westplein and its surroundings can easily float through the air. Ideas about the Westplein and the former Rhine riverbed follow a cyclical pattern. They come and go and come back again. There may be no other place in Utrecht that has been so extensively thought about, written about, and drawn. Maanzaad wants to spread the visions of these passersby from recent years and bring them back to life in a playful way, through an artwork and a podcast.”

Poppy Seed Artwork

Marij's piece will take the form of an enormous poppy seed capsule. It is a capsule in which everything that has happened over time has been condensed and which now hopefully finds new ground to grow further. Under the artwork, various seeds will be placed, each with words collected from Lombok and the surrounding area, collectively creating an image of the qualities and hopes for the future Lombokplein. Nearby the capsule, there will also be a QR code linking to the Poppy Seed Podcast. In the evening, the artwork emits a soft light, thanks to a small solar panel on top. "Poppy Seed" will remain for about six months.

Poppy Seed Podcast

A second important part of the art project is the Poppy Seed Podcast. In this podcast, residents, designers, and experts share their ideas and dreams about the future of Lombokplein. Currently, the square is still called Westplein and is mainly a place where thousands of people pass through every day. A square belonging to everyone and to no one. A place where, in the future, we want to settle and feel at home. The listener of this podcast is therefore taken on a walk through the area in the future, in the year 2035. What might be seen, heard, tasted, and smelled here in the future? For whom has the square become? How does it function? Who might you meet along the way? These are questions that twelve individuals, selected by Marij, will ask themselves. Each of them will create a fictional story about what we will see and experience here in 2035. Subsequently, interviewer and journalist Bo Steehouwer will discuss these ideas with the guests in the studio. Through thought-provoking questions, all these ideas will be brought together in a podcast. The Poppy Seed Podcast will be a place where everything about creating an urban square can be discussed and imagined. The year 2035 only exists in our imagination for now, but through their stories, the narrators will sketch a picture of Lombokplein with the potential to become reality.