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3/11/2012

Genius Loci

De Vleeshal, Middelburg

Three artists, all born and bred in the Dutch province of Zeeland, have drawn inspiration from their origins and surroundings in their own individual ways. Their explorations of what makes Zeeland unique have evoked a range of creative responses to its spirit of place, its ‘Genius Loci’.

Marcel Kentin, ‘Zeelanders on White’

What is the Zeeland identity?
Here in the Netherlands, we see references to it all the time: ‘Zeeland DNA’, the local heroine Zeeuws Meisje (recently rebooted), statements like ‘I’m a Zeelander to the very core’, Zeeland green energy and the annual Zeeland Christian Men’s Conference, just to give a few examples. But what does it really mean to be a Zeelander? And what is the Zeeland identity? Or are we all world citizens now? Does it no longer matter whether you live in the provincial capital of Middelburg, the village of Philippine near the Zeeland-Flanders border, or an entirely different part of the country, like the planned city of Almere near Amsterdam? The pillars on which Dutch society used to be based – the church, the school, the village and civic organizations – have lost much of their influence, and it seems as if our identity is becoming more universal through the growing influence of Internet and the media.
The photographer Marcel Kentin was born and bred in the town of Terneuzen in Zeeland. After living and working outside Zeeland for 17 years, he moved to Middelburg in August 2010. He is now working on the series ‘Zeelanders on White’, in which he searches for the Zeeland identity and reflects on the meaning of this concept. His portraits of Zeelanders focus primarily on their human qualities. These photographs take their subjects out of their context and familiar setting, placing them against a white background. The prints are in black and white, a choice inspired by the photographer Richard Avedon. By using the same format and presentation for all these Zeeland portraits, Kentin invites viewers to consider his central question: what is the Zeeland identity, really?

At De Kabinetten, the photographs are affixed directly to the wall, like a kind of wallpaper; the result is a temporary installation. Even though contemporary digital photography can be reproduced ad infinitum, using exactly the same data each time, Marcel Kentin’s mode of presentation gives his work an ephemeral quality.

Marjolein van Pagee, ‘Kembang Kuning – Yellow Flower’

Marjolein van Pagee (b. 1987, Goes) has been working on the photographic project ‘Kembang Kuning – Yellow Flower’ for more than two years. In this project, she travels back in time to the police actions in the Dutch East Indies colony (now Indonesia). This piece of history came to life for her when she rediscovered an old portrait of her grandfather in his tropical uniform and learned that, while performing his mandatory military service in the Dutch East Indies from 1947 to 1949, he had fought to keep the once-so-profitable colony in Dutch hands.

Since then, Marjolein has interviewed and photographed dozens of Dutch and Indonesian veterans. Now old men, they once met as enemies in a war that lasted almost five years. All of her subjects fought in the area around Surabaya in East Java.

In addition to these portraits, Pagee has also taken photographs of significant places such as the old marine canteen, the beach where the marines landed during the second police action, and the Kembang Kuning field of honour.
Marjolein van Pagee’s work has been exhibited in New York (USA), Houston (USA), and Surabaya (Indonesia) and published in Vrij Nederland and NEW (which recognized her as a 2012 photography talent).

Annemieke Fanoy, ‘Wissebad’

In 2005, Annemieke Fanoy (b. 1970, Vlissingen) returned to her native Zeeland to work. She often walks on the dikes along the Oosterschelde estuary, where she finds all sorts of treasures that end up in her studio, the seeds of new artworks. This process gives rise to drawings, objects, and installations, each one offering a new perspective on the same thing.

In the next village over, she was inspired by the Wissebad, a wonderful outdoor swimming pool from the 1970s, complete with a traditional lifeguard tower. The pool is an L-shaped blue basin embedded between the village and the polder. Using various methods, she investigated the spatial qualities of this place that held special meaning for her – the swimming pool, both empty and filled with water. Her first step was to build a spatial construct in the empty pool that alluded to the dimensions of a swimmer and the undulation of the water. She also raised a camera into the sky above the pool on a kite to record the position of the L-shaped pool in the landscape. Then she made a film while swimming, to explore the question of distance from a different angle. She worked together with the photographer Leo van Kampen and the filmmaker Conny Beneden.

Fanoy feels a connection to the landscape of Zeeland – its flatness, its vegetation, and its abundance of water. The Wissebad project was prompted by her interest in the experience of space. Her investigations are mediated by the elements of earth, air, and water. The present exhibition consists of an installation, documentary photography, and a video artwork.

Annemieke Fanoy graduated from Rotterdam’s Willem de Kooning Academy in 2002. In 2009, she received a stipend from the BKVB Fund and exhibited in the Netherlands and internationally. She works in Middelburg and Antwerp.

Opening: 4th November 2012

De Vleeshal
Markt, Zusterstraat 7, Middelburg
Hours: Tuesday to Sunday, 1 pm - 5 pm
Admission is free

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