About


Every piece of forest or landscape in the Netherlands has been designed. We love perfectibility, structure and control. But... isn't that crazy? If nature teaches us anything, it's that you must adapt to survive. And yes, that results in struggle, chaos, and skewed growth.

But is that a problem? And if so, from whom? What if trees determine their own direction and location? Boompijl wants to positively penetrate the landscape and plant a seed for a different view of public space. Straight is crooked!

"Bij scheefgroei ontstaat gevoel voor richting" - Leonieke Baerwaldt

We transform crooked trees into gigantic arrows and shoot them throughout the Netherlands. So take cover! We also plant new trees. At our Boompijl Test field at the organic tree nursery Schout, we conduct research into growing strong and healthy slanting trees. Our ultimate goal is a crisscross Boompijl forest with 1000 trees. Want to participate? Join us!

Who we are

Boompijl is an initiative of artist Tijs Rooijakkers and curator Vivian van Gaal together with a team of designers, students, tree specialists and researchers. We are all curious about how people experience nature. We conduct research into this by performing interventions in public space. We love to work with municipalities, tree planting organizations and schools to share and further develop our (skewed) view of trees and landscape.

Tijs and Vivian previously worked together on the award-winning social art project Woensel Supertoll! Hundreds of Eindhoven residents participated in this. The growing artwork swarmed through the city for years and eventually landed in the Van Abbemuseum. Tijs works from his studio at the creative breeding ground Sectie-C in Eindhoven, where he is also board member. Vivian worked for MU and STRP, among others, and is studying Landscape Design at the Van Hall Larenstein University of Applied Sciences since 2021. For Boompijl she explores what it means to be skewed, artistically, philosophically and biologically. Read her blog here

Boompijl team

🌳Tijs Rooijakkers 🏹 Concept
🌳Vivian van Gaal 🏹 Research
🌳Arnold Schout 🏹 Nursery and Test Field
🌳Simon Dermout Cramer 🏹 Tree care
🌳Stijn van Leest 🏹 Guerilla
🌳Karlijn de Groot 🏹 Workshops

More information on www.tijsrooijakkers.nl

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