Margot Berkman | Portfolio Categories Exhibitions

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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.

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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.

March 18, 2021

Film – Whispering Seaweed 2020

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.

A soundscape is specially made by Will Calhoun (grammy award winning drummer Living Color, New York)

April 29, 2020

Whispering Seaweed Landart Amstelveen 2020

Landart 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 5, 2019

Measurements: the entire interior

Scheherezade in the Kring

For the Lustrum of the Thousand and One Night, the artists’ society De Kring in Amsterdam was completely transformed by Berkman en Janssens into a magical and exotic environment. All performances and parties took place in the structure of Arabian Nights. The light design was specially manufactured by DreLight (eg from Peter Greenaway)

There was an exhibition in the restaurant with collages and mobiles of shoes.