De Zoute Peel
every generation builds on the ruins of the old.
Julia we gaan zinken
Ik zag het in de krant
Ben weer aan ’t verdrinken
Mijn schedel staat in brand
~ The Nine Wives
A man with a raisin head silently sails over the salty underwater villages. From a mountain of waste, an illegal beachcomber mines raw materials for Plak, the black gold of the Peel Sea. What stories does she hold to tell? Which stories do we carry in our own blood like the salt of the Peel Sea?
Stories of a drowned land
"I can taste the salt in the air. It's all around me. In my hair, which is still dripping from the last dive. In the water that licks the church towers and rolls along the island. In the wood of the drowned juniper trees."
De Zoute Peel
De Zoute Peel is a story and performance rooted in the Peel landscape where Marjolein Pijnappels was born. It unfolds from a former waste mountain that rises like an island above the waves, beneath the artwork De Offertafel by Ruud van Beele. De Zoute Peel tells of a future in which the Peel has changed beyond recognition and how the survivors reshape their bond with the land.
What is preserved in a time when everything washes away? How do you put down roots in liquid land?
Thinking about these questions as a group helps people navigate transitions and acknowledge that the future is not something that happens to us, but something we actively shape together.
Every year, the Peelmuseum America and CEZP (Cultural Heritage Zwarte Plak) foundations organise a storytelling walk, sharing stories from history and the future through storytelling, dance, and music. De Zoute Peel is one of three stories in the 2026 edition.
Trailer
The world and the landscape change, and so do the stories we tell each other. Every generation builds a new story on the ruins of the old. We cannot move forward if we don't know what ground we are building on.
Our generation builds on a foundation of waste. Literally.
