Uitzicht (view) is an installation based on my longing for the nature of my homeland (Sweden) and all its characteristic features; a wild and varied landscape, huge forests and steep hills, specific flora and fauna, fragrances and sounds (silence), and distinct seasons. But at the same time, it is an interpretation of the Dutch landscape; a landscape that is predominantly artificial – based on land reclamation and strict planning for maximum utilization of land in terms of infrastructure such as housing, agriculture, transportation and recreation.

Based on this mixture – lack, fascination and longing – the installation was made as a contribution to the semi-artificial Dutch society, by means of transforming a memory of a viewpoint (in reality located in my hometown in Sweden) into an actual site in Amsterdam.

Uitzicht thus formulates a response to the typical Dutch phenomenon ‘polder’ (to reclaim land areas from the sea); establishing an artificial hillside inside of a residential building in the middle of an Amsterdam suburb, about 5 meters below sea level. The basic structure of the viewpoint consists of the floors and walls of the Modernist housing complex ‘Het Breed’ in Buikslotermeer – an area which itself is located in a ‘polder’. The installation forms a scenography based on a personal memory, which is simultaneously complemented by the viewers’ experiences, impressions and ideas of this suddenly non-Dutch landscape.

The project was supported by the AFK (Amsterdam Fund for the Arts).