March 1, 2026

Film Wave of Breath Whispering Seaweed 2020

A collaboration between drummer Will Calhoun and artist Margot Berkman is not simply a meeting of disciplines…

It is a convergence of rhythms. 

Of breath

Of tide

 

For the film ‘Wave of Breath’, Calhoun’s percussive language and Berkman’s visual universe merge into a shared meditation on the ocean as a living, breathing organism. His drums do not accompany the images; they move like currents beneath them. 

 

Each pulse echoes the unseen respiration of seaweed forests, each silence holds the weight of deep water. What emerges is not a soundtrack, but a dialogue — between sound and sculpture, between body and sea.

 

This collaboration extends into Berkman’s monumental sculptures ‘Whispering Seaweed’, created in public area next to the Cobra Museum in the Netherlands. Rising 4.5 meters high, the sculptural forms evoke towering seaweeds — the quiet lungs of the planet. In the evening, subtle illumination animates their surfaces, creating the illusion that they are gently swaying underwater. They appear to breathe.

 

Calhoun’s rhythmic sensibility resonates within these forms. Just as seaweed moves with invisible tides, his drumming responds to forces that cannot be seen but can be felt. Together, the work embodies the Japanese philosophy of ichi go ichi e— one time, one encounter — reminding us that each breath, each moment of attention to the natural world, is unrepeatable.

 

At its heart, this collaboration is about listening. 

Listening to the ocean. 

Listening to the fragile systems that sustain more than half of the oxygen we breathe. 

Listening to each other across disciplines and continents.

 

In ‘Wave of Breath’ and ‘Whispering Seaweed’, sound becomes sculpture and sculpture becomes rhythm. 

The sea is no longer background — it is presence. 

It is heart…pulse. It is breath.

 

 

Wave of Breath

11 March 2011 – Fukushima Japan

We owe our existence to the breathing waves; we have to take good care of what gave us life.

With the sculpture group Whispering Seaweed, Margot Berkman takes us below the surface, to a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Like the sea, her work shows one reflection after another: in sculptures, in drawings, in ink, paint, bronze and textiles.

This film marks the unveiling of the sculpture group Whispering Seaweed in public space and the opening of the exhibition Wave of Breath in the Cobra Museum, in which curator Katja Rodenburg presents a selection of the artist’s versatile work.

May 27, 2025

Seaweed Skeleton nr8 ARTZUID Amsterdam 2025

Seaweed Skeleton No. 8 2025 Margot Berkman

(The Remains of a Former Kelp Forest)

 

Do we need a physical object—like a skeleton—to become aware of our own mortality?

This question lies at the heart of the Seaweed Skeletons series, in which Dutch artist Margot

Berkman visualizes the invisible world beneath the waves. Seaweed produces more oxygen than

the rainforests, yet its organic life cycle ends with its dissolution in the sea. Seaweed skeletons are

structures that don’t actually exist in nature.

These imagined forms—once soft, flowing, and vital parts of the kelp forests—now stand frozen in

space like fossils from a bygone era.

The five upward-twisting red arms of the nearly three-meter-tall sculpture seem to plead for help; it

is an existential cry. Seaweed Skeleton No. 8 brings the ocean’s transience to the surface of our

consciousness. The sculpture is both a tribute and a warning. The floating motion of oxygen-rich

kelp is now trapped in an immobile future.

Since the Fukushima nuclear disaster in 2011, ocean pollution has played a key role in Margot

Berkman’s work. Through large-scale public installations, she draws attention to climate change

and rising sea levels under the title The Ocean Breathes. A new work for the stage of Venice 2026 is

currently in production.

______________________________________________________________________________

ARTZUID 2025

The 9th edition of the Amsterdam Sculpture Biennale ARTZUID will take place from 21 May to 21

September 2025. On Apollolaan and Minervalaan in Amsterdam-Zuid, 50 outdoor sculptures will

be showcased of renowned arTsts and young talented artists.

www.artzuid.nl

List of participating artists ARTZUID 2025

Arlene Shechet (USA), Art van Triest (NL), Atelier van Lieshout (NL), Alicja Kwade(PL), Armando (NL), Bart

Lunenburg (NL), BasTenne Kramer (NL), BriYe Koolen(NL), Carin Scholten (NL), Chris Peterson (NL),

Cristobal Gabarron (ES), DavidBade (CW), David van der Kop (NL), David Nash (GB), Erik Buijs (NL),

EjiWatanabe (JP), Esther Jiskoot (NL), Fiona Römpp (NL), Gavin Turk (GB), HelenVergouwen (NL), Herbert

Nouwens (NL) Henk Visch (NL), Hieke Luik (NL), Huuben Adelheid Kortekaas (NL), Isa van Lier (NL), Ilse

Oelbers (NL), Iris Le RüYe (NL),Ivan Cremer (NL), Jaume Plensa (ES), Jean-Marie Appriou (FR), Katleen

Vinck(BE), Klaas Gubbels (NL), Laura Schurink (NL), Leilah Babirye (USA), Lina IrisVictor (USA), Leiko

Ikemura (JP), LoYa Blokker (NL), Louise Schouwenberg (NL),Maja van Hall (NL), Marcel Pinas (SR), Maen

Florin (BE), Magdalena Abakanowicz(PL), Marte Röling (NL), Marieke Bolhuis (NL), Margot Berkman (NL),

MarionVerboom (FR), Micky Hoogendijk (NL), Nadia Naveau (BE), Natasja Alers (NL),Nel van Lith (NL),

Nelson Carrilho (NL), Neo Rauch (DE), Paloma Varga Weisz(DE), Paul Goede (NL), Rachel Harrison (USA),

Rob Schreefel (NL), Rob Voerman(NL), Ronald Westerhuis (NL),Ruud Kuijer (NL), Shinkichi Tajiri (USA), Sjef

Voets(NL), Sokari Douglas Camp (GB), Stefan Rinck (DE), Tirzo Martha (CW),Tschabalala Self (USA), Tal

R(DEN), Tony Cragg (GB), Wjm Kok (NL), Woutervan der Giessen (NL), Xavier Veilhan (FR), Yoshitomo Nara

(JP)

November 5, 2023

Koraaldrift Heliomare 2023

Koraaldrift (2022) – Margot Berkman

Coral  2022 -Margot Berkman

Location: Heliomare Rehabilitation Centre , Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands

Dimensions :  9 x 7  x 3,5 meter

Material:  Quartzsand, plasterdispersion , LED lights

 

 

 Press release HELIOMARE

Wijk aan Zee, October 24, 2023

 

Unveiling of the artwork ‘Koraaldrift’ by Margot Berkman at Heliomare

An image of hope

 

Margot Berkman, wellknown for creating many art commissions in public spaces, including the monument for King Willem Alexander, will donate her work of art ‘Coralpassion’ (‘Koraaldrift’) to Heliomare on Thursday afternoon, November 2 at 5 p.m. as a thank you for all the help she has received in her rehabilitation.Together with Jan Welmers, director of Heliomare, she unveils the group of sculptures.

Berkman is inspired by nature and in particular seaweeds. Seaweed provides more than 54% of the world’s oxygen. Corals live in symbiosis with seaweed. When seaweed dies, the coral also dies from lack of oxygen.

Berkman was on Bonaire in December 2021 and conducted filming and painting research into braincoral. She had discovered that large formations of braincorals came back to life in full splendor after being white and bleached for a year. Recovery appears possible. That sentence later became her motto.

Ironically, two weeks later she was hit from behind by a car while running on Bonaire and her head hit a tree.

In a coma, Berkman was hospitalized and diagnosed with brain damage; she could no longer do anything and was in a wheelchair.

Ultimately, she was allowed to start rehabilitation at Heliomare in May 2022. Berkman created the scu lpture group ‘Koraaldrift’ during her rehabilitation period in her own studio in Zandvoort aan Zee. She has come a long way but is still recovering. Living proof of her motto: Recovery appears possible.

 

The sculpture group ‘Koraaldrift’

Five coral-like structures surround a nearly four-meter-high, sky-reaching seaweed-like shape that stands at the top of a dune.

These six sculptures together form the artwork ‘Coralpassion (‘Koraaldrift’) and are placed on the experience path at the main entrance of the center for specialist rehabilitation of Heliomare.

With its dimensions of 9 x 7 meters and 3.8 m high, the artwork is a real eye-catcher for patients, employees and visitors. During the day the sculptures are radiantly white, but as soon as dusk sets in, the artwork is magically illuminated, like living coral in the underwater world.

The artwork tells the story about the resilience of nature, the body and the mind. It points you to another, slower world. The special shapes emerge from her research into the many types of brain coral. The corals fight for their existence underwater. They show, colored and less colored, whether their life force is decreasing or increasing. Above water they have settled in the rolling dune. Together the stone-like elements form a special intermediate landscape. They invite you to pause for a moment and think: Are we above or below water?

 

Brain injury and braincoral

For someone with a brain injury, a different reality, a different world, arises. Just like the underwater world, your world becomes ‘slower’. You slow down due to sensitivity to light and sound, fatigue, reduced concentration and physical complaints.

Margot Berkman believes that with good guidance and strong willpower you can achieve your dreams and hopes that this image group is a source of inspiration for everyone who wants to achieve more in their lives. As a thank you to Heliomare and all the passionate therapists and employees, she donates her brain coral-inspired sculpture group Koraaldrift.

 

November 1, 2022

Koraaldrift Haarlemse Hout Beeldengalerij 2022

Koraaldrift (2022) – Margot Berkman

Coral Fury 2022 -Margot Berkman

Koraaldrift is an artcommission from Beeldengalerij Foundation for public area of Haarlem.

Location: Dreef/ Haarlemse Hout, Haarlem Nederland

Measurements:  6 x 6 x 3,5 meter

 

Material:  Quartzsand, plasterdispersion , LED lights

March 19, 2021

Cobra Museum Wave of Breath 2020

In the beginning there is the sea.
One day there is a first wave that sets everything in motion.
The algae take shape and wave with the water.
At times they oppose the waves.

From one form comes a new form, and another.
A diversity of forms emerges.
The sea begins to breathe for us and we breathe with the sea.

This is the world that inspires and nurtures Margot Berkman.
In Wave she takes us underwater, to a world both familiar and strange.
Like the sea her work displays reflection upon reflection: in sculptures, in drawings, in ink, paint, bronze and fabric.
For the wave brings deeper layers to the surface. Layers that can be only briefly exposed to sunlight and can only be held fast in another form.
And then the wave plunges down, and the making begins again.

                                                                                                                Katja Rodenburg – Curator

 

 

Wave of Breath

11 March 2011 – Fukushima Japan

August 2020 – Whispering Seaweed Amstelveen

We owe our existence to the breathing waves; we have to take good care of what gave us life.

With the sculpture group Whispering Seaweed, Margot Berkman takes us below the surface, to a world that is both familiar and unfamiliar. Like the sea, her work shows one reflection after another: in sculptures, in drawings, in ink, paint, bronze and textiles.

This film marks the unveiling of the sculpture group Whispering Seaweed in public space and the opening of the exhibition Wave of Breath in the Cobra Museum, in which curator Katja Rodenburg presents a selection of the artist’s versatile work.

April 29, 2020

Whispering Seaweed Landart Amstelveen 2020

Whispering Seaweed — where the sea finds its voice in the heart of the country

In the green of Amstelveen, three monumental forms rise from the undulating landscape of Keizer Karelplein. Whispering Seaweed by Margot Berkman consists of three sculptures, a staggering 4.5 meters tall—slender, organic shapes that bear the silhouette of seaweed.

They appear not to have been placed, but to have grown.

The square’s name carries a historical undercurrent. In his time, Emperor Charles  gave impetus to early forms of water management because this area—present-day Amstelveen—was regularly flooded. What is now an urban landscape was once a fluctuating zone between land and water. Without dikes, there would be no lawn here, but a body of water. And where there is water, there is seaweed.

Berkman makes this hidden history tangible.

The three sculptures, as it were, mark the imaginary depth of the water that could have existed here. Their height suggests an underwater world rising above the ground. Standing among the forms, you no longer find yourself on a square, but on an imaginary seabed.

As evening falls, a subtle transformation takes place. The lighting in and around the sculptures causes their contours to softly move in the darkness. Shadows shift, lines appear to undulate. It is as if the sculptures are actually waving in water—a tranquil choreography of light and form. The square transforms into a nocturnal seascape, a place where breath, rhythm, and silence converge.

The choice of three different seaweed forms is based on a Japanese philosophical principle: ichie go ichie—one moment, one encounter.

 

Each experience is unique and unrepeatable. Just as no wave is identical to the last, no two perceptions of this work are the same. The light is different, the wind varies, the viewer changes.

The three sculptures represent this uniqueness. They are related, but not identical. Together, they form a rhythm in the undulating terrain—a composition that is constantly recreated in the encounter between work, place, and viewer.

Whispering Seaweed is thus more than a reference to the sea or history. It is a reminder of our ongoing relationship with water—physical, historical, and existential. The work whispers that what we call solid was once fluid. And that what we control still surrounds us.

On Keizer Karelplein, the sea breathes again. Not in waves, but in light. Not in water, but in form. And always—in one unique moment at a time.

 

Whispering Seaweed

With exhibiton ‘Waves of Breath’ by curator Katja Rodenburg in the Cobra museum in Amstelveen and a soundscape specially created by Will Calhoun (grammy award winning drummer Living Color, New York)

 

February 14, 2019

Archimedes in Wonderland © Berkman en Janssens tunnel Utrecht 2001

Measurements: 1500 m2 of decorated tiles, 200 m2 of painting on the ceiling

 

A bicycle tunnel as a fairy tale.

 

While pedaling through the 60-meter-long tube, cyclists can feed their imagination with the decorated ceramic tiles and paintings from the artist duo Berkman and Janssens. The artwork is based on the inventions of the Greek mathematician Archimedes and the adventures of Alice in Wonderland.

 

The opening was done by mr. J. van Zanen, Alderman of Public Space, Municipality of Utrecht.

 

From the hands of the artists, Mr. J. van Zanen, the first copy of the screen print ‘Archimedes in Wonderland’ specially made for this exhibition. The queen, the cat, the man with the hat and the rabbit, they all lift the glass with us on 18 December 2001 in the City Hall in Utrecht.

 

 

 

February 8, 2019

Sisters in Paradise ©Berkman en Janssens fietstunnel Utrecht 2003

Measurements: 400 m2 decorated tiles, 200 m2 paint on pillars of the bridge

 

Inspiration from tile remains from the former Mariëndal monastery, or Maria ten Dael,

 

Commissioned by the city of Utrecht, the Utrecht artist duo Berkman and Janssens designed a beautiful artwork with the title  ‘Sisters in Paradise’. It is located on both banks of the river Vecht under the bridge over the Marnixlaan. The pillars of the bridge and the ceiling are renovated and painted. Cyclists and hikers now pass a cheerful scene with animals, surrounded by tiles with medieval motifs.

 

The images  are inspired by the surrounding neighbourhood and its history. The animals were once or can still be found on the banks of the river. The floral motifs on the tiles come from images found on tile remnants from the former monastery Mariëndal, or Maria ten Dael, which stood in the vicinity of the Marnix Bridge.

 

Berkman and Janssens designed this artwork. They are specialized in art in public space. The tiles are made of durable material, easy to maintain and have a nice appearance.

February 8, 2019

Les Dames et la Licorne © Berkman en Janssens Amsterdam 2004

A fairytale-like entrance to the Bos en Lommer shopping center

 

The artist duo Berkman and Janssens created an unique floor artwork (16 mx 40 m) in combination with a stainless steel fence (5 m x 10 m). This forms the surprising entrance of the Bos en Lommer shopping center.

 

In the entrance of the shopping center at the Bos en Lommerplein, sparrows in the fence welcome visitors and point the way to the richly decorated tiles that decorate the ground floor. The fence with sparrows and the floor with fairytale animals together form “Les Dames et la Licorne”.

 

Berkman and Janssens have once again proved with “Les Dames et la Licorne” to be able to give an original interpretation to the concept “art in public space“.

 

For the first time in the Netherlands a work of art of this type and sizehas been placed. Public places have high demands on tile floors. Berkman and Janssens,  have succeeded in developing a special tile line that meets extremely high aesthetic and sustainability requirements, and also allows for large-scale representations (eg of animal figures) with fairy-like appearance.

 

There was also a close collaboration with a supplier for  the stainless steel fence. The fence was also the inspiration for the new logo of the Bos en Lommer shopping center.

 

 

People cherish the artwork and this public area.