Zabriskie point, USA, 2006

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Exploration
This issue of the HTV is dedicated to a remark of the prime-minister of the Netherlands Balkenende who stated that the Netherlands should return to it's 'lost' Dutch historical VOC* spirit. The remark of our Prime minister raised lot's of questions in the Netherlands. I made a compilation for the spread of the magazine with private photos and found footage relating to 'Exploration'. Download 'Exploration' (pdf)

* The Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) was established in 1602, when the Estates -General of the Netherlands granted it a 21-year monopoly to carry out colonial activities in Asia. It was the first multinational corporation in the world and the first company to issue stock. It remained an important trading concern for almost two centuries, paying an 18% annual dividend for almost 200 years, until it became bankrupt and was formally dissolved in 1800, its possessions and the debt being taken over by the government of the Batavian Republic.

Formatting the Museum
This spread is developed for the Witte Raaf, a critical artpaper spread throughout The Netherlands and Belgium. This issue focused on the museum and it's organisation of space, art and audience. On request of the Witte Raaf I developed together with Julie Peeters an imagespread with found and private footage that reflects images of spaces and phenomenon in a museum to situations outside the museum. Download 'Formatting the Museum' (pdf)

Theatrum orbis Terrarum

'Theatrum orbis Terrarum, Collage, 2006

Taking inspiration from Ortelius’ 'Theatrum orbis Terrarum’ (Theatre of the World), the first modern atlas, it is my aim to gain an insight into the way in which the world is organised. Not by means of abstract maps and purely geographical data, but by arranging photographic registrations of the world according to personal criteria. At the moment, the archive is made up of three ordering systems, viz. ‘Gestures’, ‘References’ and ‘Speculations’.

‘Gestures’ contains images that show traces and effects of human interventions. The images can be taken anywhere; they all emphasise that people, regardless of their geographical location, have similar ways of organising and designing their daily environment.
The ‘References’ archive makes us understand how (garden) architecture, business and private interiors, institutes such as the museum and recreation parks express their respective views of less than familiar locations and cultures. This part of the archive generates an atlas of the representation of geographical and cultural elements in new surroundings. The images are put at the location they represent.
‘Speculations’ is made up of images of spaces that represent a specific era in the past.

These systems are in a constant state of development and are extensively brought up to date when new images and categories have been obtained. One image can be included in different categories and systems and, in consequence of this, trigger opposite meanings. In close collaboration with designer Julie Peeters I made a series of independent publications and published contributions in magazines and catalogues.

* Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (Theatre of the World) is considered the first true atlas in the modern sense: a collection of uniform map sheets and sustaining text bound to form a book for which copper printing plates were specifically engraved. The Ortelius atlas is sometimes referred to as the summary of sixteenth-century cartography. It was published in 1570.