Subjective mapping of Fryslân

21 Jul

Summer 2012 —Summer 2013

Fryslân has a strong visual image; everybody is dared to position themselves around it. That is one of the aspects that appealed to Subjective Editions in the question that Roelof Koster of Keunstwurk asked us: if we could create a subjective atlas about only one province. We accepted the challenge and together with the designers and teachers of the Academy of Pop Culture, Hugo Engwerda and Jan Pier Brands, and the multitalented student Jenne-Pieter Stiemsma, we have organised several workshops. An inspired group of designers and artists – who have lived or still live in Fryslân – generously created sensitive contributions with stories, photos, drawings and sketches. We discussed, investigated and processed them into this atlas.

Workshop at Academy of Popculture, Leeuwarden, Summer 2012

What does it mean to live in Fryslân? What makes daily life Frisian? What is the relationship with the countryside? What is treasured? What kind of oppositions are there? How has the Frisian past translated to the future? When we talked to all the contributors of this atlas, many praised the self-sufficiency of the province. It is expressed in homemade products, restored houses, the presence of workshops, and the large amount of independent handymen who travel daily up and down the Afsluitdijk to help renovate the rest of the country. The horizon seems to draw a straight line through the stories about the landscape. Besides the physical vastness, the flat landscape apparently also creates a mental and social space, of which the special relationship was examined by a landscape architect. He made a contribution about it for this atlas.

Discussing final contributions during last workshop at Academie for Popcultuur, Autumn 2013

All the stories unveil love for the different elements that create Fryslân: the words, language, high-rise and low-rise buildings, self-sufficiency, culinary traditions, social codes, self-evident social care and the often double feelings about the province. Being born there, but not feeling Frisian; being raised there, but wanting to go beyond it. Fryslân as a memory or as a holiday destination. Being from Amsterdam, but finding a home in Fryslân. Returning as a Parisian. Studying there, but not living there. Understanding Frisian but not being able to speak it.

It appears that Fryslân-as-identity is at a critical tilting moment. Slowly the contours of the nostalgic view are disappearing and current times are asking new questions. This subjective atlas can function as a tool to investigate this change. It is a poetic form of anthropology that questions the current identity of Fryslân, going beyond nostalgia and clichés.

Launch of Subjective Atlas of Fryslân during the manifestation of ‘Leeuwarden cultural capital’, Leeuwarden, 2014

This design was awarded an honourable mention for the ‘Vredeman De Vries Award 2013’. This film was made on behalf of Provinsje Fryslân for the nominees of the award and made by Thomas Roebers & Bastiaan Blaauw

Jury report: As a layered insight of what there is to experience and see in this province, it is a unique timely document. Our own environment is viewed with fresh eyes. It is also very good that the approach is not romantic, it is not based on Fryslân as a place of craftsmanship and agriculture. It seems an ideal gift for Leeuwarden as a Cultural Capital. The design is more layered as a research than as an object. Clearly, a thorough examination has taken precedence over a great aesthetic result. That is a choice of the initiator, who has already made a whole series of this type of atlases for the Netherlands and abroad. This places the critical view of this Atlas on the culture of Fryslân within a larger whole.

Acknowlegdments

This publication has been made possible by the financial support of: Gemeente Leeuwarden, Leeuwarden 2018, Netwerk Duurzame Dorpen, Historisch Centrum Leeuwarden, Hanzehogeschool Groningen/ Minerva Academie voor Popcultuur and Keunstwurk