Wild Clay (project of Benedetta Pompili & Samantha Thole)
We often hear how clay is abundant and that is everywhere, but how?
The Wild Clay experience, supported by the Ceramic Department of Gerrit Rietveld Academie, offers each year the opportunity to travel through The Netherlands, getting to know this material at its core, whilst learning about the land and its stories.
The Food Edition
This year, we have decided to focus on clay as an essential component of the soil for agricolture. This choice has been marked by the history and present of the Lutkemeer polder, the last fertile area left in Amsterdam. Its fertility, which stems from the clay presence, has grown debates over the land between municiaplity, large businesses and local citizens. PLUK!
To explore these layered aspects orbiting the polder, we have organised a meeting and activity together with one of the local organisations devoted to use the land to cultivate organic food for the Amsterdammers. PLUK! is part of the larger project of the Voedselpark Amsterdam, which has been developing a concrete and feasible plan to develop the Lutkemeerpolder into an agro-ecological landscape park since 2022.
The Lutkemeerpolder
The sea clay, 8000 year old (Holocene period), determines the fertility of the soil, which characterises the area of the polder, making it an interesting agricoltural spot. The clay shows in fact several phases of deposition expressed in grain size differences with shell remains testifying to past marine life, life forms that are still found in the Wadden Sea today.
The sea clay
During the Holocene the coastline of what became the Netherlands moved. The shallow seas left behind clay, silt, and sand. The Lutkemeerpolder was sea once and will be sea again. The sea clay, 8000 year old (Holocene period), determines the fertility of the soil. It shows several phases of deposition expressed in grain size differences with shell remains testifying to past marine life, life forms that are still found in the Wadden Sea today.
The debate
The Lutkemeerpolder in Amsterdam is at the centre of a debate over land use. Historically, its inhabitants adapted gradually to coastal flooding through flexible agriculture and water management. The municipality wants now to develop the area as a business park for logistic centres, while activists argue for preserving the remaining farmland as an eco-food park. They see opportunities for sustainable food production, biodiversity, education and climate resilience. The Lutkemeerpolder represents a tension between slow and rapid growth. The debate reflects a wider question:
should scarce urban land serve economic growth or environmental and social needs?
De Voedselpark (Food Park) Amsterdam
The Amsterdam Food Park plan has been selected as the winner of the tender with the municipality. Meanwhile taking care of 10 hectares within the plot, Voedselpark continues to work for the fertile soil of the Lutkemeerpolder, which is still threatened by building plans. In the spring of 2026, the architects involved have presented the preliminary design for the farm and park to the future farmers and everyone involved in the project. According to the plan, the design is reviewed by the municipality and, upon approval, the final design phase can start, followed by the application for the environmental permit
more info about the project:As part of the Wild Clay, participants were invited to engage with the raw, untamed materiality of local clay, exploring its potential as both an artistic medium and a theoretical metaphor. The project began with a thought-provoking lounge lecture by Pia Seidel, who introduced the concept of "wild clay" — clay sourced directly from the earth, unprocessed and unpredictable. Seidel reflected on how working with wild clay reconnects the human to the landscape, to natural processes, and to the uncontrollable forces of nature that shape both material and meaning.
This introduction was enriched by theoretical insights from Stacy Alaimo’s influential book Undomesticated Ground: Recasting Nature as Feminist Space (2000). Alaimo argues that nature, historically framed as passive and feminine — "Mother Earth" or "Mother Nature" — has often been used to symbolically confine women to domestic, controlled roles. Feminist theory, for this reason, has long been cautious in its engagement with “nature.” However, Alaimo boldly proposes to reclaim nature as an active, resistant feminist space — wild, undomesticated, and irreducible to human control.
This framework offered a rich lens through which to view the Wild Clay Project: as an act of reclaiming material agency, embracing the unpredictability of the earth, and challenging the boundary between the "cultured" and the "natural." Through sourcing, preparing, and shaping wild clay, participants not only learned new ceramic techniques but also entered into a dialogue with feminist ecological thought — making the material itself part of a wider critical and creative inquiry.
