Michiel van Bakel

Within the surreal wasteland of Rotterdam Maasvlakte an improbable beauty germinates beneath the high voltage pylons.

For some years Wood Wide Web is the magic phrase to describe the web of roots, fungi and bacteria helping to connect trees and plants to one another. In ‘What Wide Web?’ Van Bakel depicts the surreal wasteland of Rotterdam Maasvlakte and its grid of power pylons. After a bumpy ride we zoom in on the improbable beauty germinating underneath high voltage lines, a living part of our world hardly ever noticed. The plants that grow below the energy-web are shown as in a digital herbarium. We can ask ourselves: are industry and nature evolving more into co-existence?