For ‘De Gloeiige (The Fen-fire)’ Erik van Lieshout returns to his birthplace: a former peat harvesting region known as The Deurnese Peel, now a nature reserve in the province of North Brabant in the southwest of the Netherlands which borders an agricultural industrial aerea. There he worked for almost a year (March 2023-December 2023)on an abandoned farm at the address Riet 3. The owner wants to start a rabbit farm to produce antiserum against snake venom, but is waiting for permissions.

The poor soils around Deurne are the setting for issues that are hot topics in Dutch national politics: intensive livestock farming, nitrate pollution, immigration, climate change, housing shortages, agricultural odor nuisance, nature conservation. Van Lieshout strides across farms and talks to local residents and addresses numerous topical issues and sore points. He creates installations that reflect on the history, present and future of the Brabant countryside. Everything serves as artistic inspiration, resulting in sand carpets, egg chains or a giant hay rabbit. Van Lieshout navigates smoothly between struggling farmers, concerned citizens and the occasional big earner. And then there is the vet who breeds rabbits to extract serums against snakebites.

The title refers to a wandering spirit in the folk tales of The Peel: a restless soul who must continue to wander until he has compensated for a mistake during life (cheating with a plot of land, stealing, killing) by doing good.

‘The Fen-fire’ was first shown, in collaboration with The Noordbrabants Museum, in a barn opposite to Riet 3 to all the persons appearing in the film on June 27th 2024. After that on July 7th 2024 the official museum premiere took place at The Noordbrabants Museum within the exhibition ‘Veranderland’. November 15th 2024 The Fen-fire celebrated it’s festival world premiere in the EYE film museum/Amsterdam as part of the Envision Competition of the International Documentary Festival Amsterdam.

Although the film can be considered as a conclusion, Van Lieshout continues to work in The Peel, keeping track of the changes in land: leaving farmers, empty barns, protests. The hay rabbit still stands at Riet 3.