2 Feb - 30 Apr 2026

Thomas Ryckewaert ( Belgium )

During his residency at ZK/U, Thomas will develop The Empty Lot, a site-specific project focusing on overlooked and “useless” urban spaces where life persists beyond human attention. Vacant lots, infrastructural leftovers, and forgotten plots of land are approached as transitional ecosystems – places where non-human species adapt, resist, and quietly prepare for a future beyond human control. The project is developed in close collaboration with scientists from the Leibniz Institute of Freshwater Ecology and Inland Fisheries (IGB), whose research focuses on ecological and evolutionary processes under extreme urban conditions.

The Empty Lot is the second part of a trilogy inspired by Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, a universe in which horror, science fiction, and ecology converge.