landscape

Within the residency and heritage project of PopMonument (NL), Amatorski was invited to provide their own interpretation of the European theme for Open Heritage Days 2024: ‘Routes, Networks, and Connections’, with a particular emphasis on connections between the past and present within a location, monument, or city. The assigned monuments were the Kleine Kerk in Veere and a historic house and site in Bergen op Zoom, which currently serves as the location for the café and theater Het Zwijnshoofd. Within this project, Amatorski attempts to trace vivid histories and the concept of ‘landscape’.

Early in the residency period, during a visit to the Kleine Kerk in Veere, I was immersed in the history of the Reformation in the 16th century and the Iconoclasm, during which Christian images and sculptures were destroyed. During the same period, the focus in Dutch painting shifted from mythological and Christian iconography to still life, depictions of daily life, and landscape painting. During my visit to the café and theatre Het Zwijnshoofd in Bergen op Zoom, I learned about various archaeological surveys conducted in and around this heritage site. Regarding the geographical location: the rear of Het Zwijnshoofd borders the Brabant Ridge. At the current ‘Mineurplein’, the square just behind Het Zwijnshoofd, a deeply rooted soil was discovered, a former mediaeval vegetable garden and orchard. Remarkably, the excavations ‘yielded no traces from the 17th century.’
I wanted to approach the two different monuments from the perspective of their multilayered histories, and similarly work with the complexity and multilayeredness of (recording) sound. During this residency period, both locations were connected through the historically layered, variable, and still recognizable concept of ‘landscape.’ As Amatorski’s latest album, this project is driven by a fascination with the relationships between different (human and more-than-human) life forms and the entanglement of time and space.

Thus, the project has a multifaceted outcome, including a webpage featuring recent field recordings made around the two monuments, such as geofone recordings (vibrations and contact sounds on surfaces like soil or tree bark) and hydrophone recordings (underwater sounds). Each visit or page refresh generates a unique combination of these recordings, with varying processing through filtering (the original recordings can be listened to via download). Simultaneously, the background colour of the website changes with each visit to another ‘earth tone’, inspired by natural colours. Both before and during Amatorski’s performance in Bergen op Zoom on September 14, field recordings made around the café and theatre will be played back. The text (on the right side) recounts the research I conducted into the iconography of ‘landscape’ during this residency. Via the work of various authors, thinkers and artists, it explores the political, economic and religious transformations of the 16th and 17th centuries that underlie the territorialisation, colonisation and aestheticization of ‘landscape’. This exploration was undertaken with questions addressing a (critical) audio practice in this context, driven by a desire for a renewed, empathetic connection with ‘landscape(s)’.

Thanks to PopMonument, Hayo and Joep, Kleine Kerk in Veere, café and theater Het Zwijnshoofd in Bergen op Zoom, Ria (and Wiske), Hendrik, Robin and Tineke.

Recordings, text & website: Inne / Amatorski
Dramaturgy: Tineke De Meyer

References:

Adams, Ann Jensen (2002) Competing Communities in the “Great Bog of Europe” - Identity and Seventeenth-Century Dutch Landscape Painting (in Landscape and Power, W. J. T. Mitchell), The University of Chicago Press

Amsterdam Museum (2019), online

Antrop, Marc (2013) A brief history of landscape research, University of Ghent (PDF)

Bluwstein, Jevgeniy (2021) Colonizing landscapes/landscaping colonies: from a global history of landscapism to the contemporary landscape approach in nature conservation, Journal of Political Ecology (PDF)

Darke, Rick (2014) The Accidental Landscape (in The Good Gardener? - Nature, Humanity and the Garden, Giesecke, Annette and Naomi Jacobs, co-editors), Artifice Books on Architecture London

KNMI / Koninklijk Nederlands Metereologisch Instituut, online

Mauritshuis (2009) Jacob van Ruisdael schildert Bentheim, Stichting Koninklijk Kabinet van Schilderijen Mauritshuis, Den Haag & Waanders Uitgevers, Zwolle

Minh-ha, Trinh T. Phantom Images on the Move - Conversation with Ute Meta Bauer (in Traveling in the Dark, Minh-ha, Trinh T, Mousse Publishing)

Minh-ha, Trinh T. A Space Called I* - Conversation with Shivani Radhakrishnan (in Traveling in the Dark, Minh-ha, Trinh T, Mousse Publishing)

Olwig, Kenneth Robert (2002) Landscape, Nature, and the Body Politic, The University of Wisconsin Press

PKN Gapinge-Veere (PDF)

Rancière, Jacques (2013) The Time of the Landscape: On the Origins of the Aesthetic Revolution, Polity Press

Schama, Simon (1998) Dutch Landscapes: Culture as Foreground (in Masters of 17th-century Dutch landscape painting, Sutton, Peter C; Blankert, Albert), The Herbert Press

Smith, Linda Tuhiwai (1999) Decolonizing methodologies: Research and Indigenous peoples, Zed Books

Tolia-Kelly, Divya P. (2013) Landscape and memory (in The Routledge Companion to Landscape Studies - Howard, Peter; Thompson, Ian; Waterton, Emma), Routledge London and New York

Tuan, Yi-Fu (1979) Thought and Landscape: The Eye and the Mind’s Eye (in The Interpretation of Ordinary Landscapes, ed. D. W. Meinig), Oxford University Press (PDF)

Wright, Mark Peter (2022) Listening After Nature - Field Recording, Ecology, Critical Practice, Bloomsbury

Tracing the Meanings of Landscape

‘Listening’ to landscape is listening to a multiplicity of landscapes and temporalities, audible and inaudible phenomena, human and more-than-human presences (Wright).

The following text traces a living history of the concept of ‘landscape’. We begin with the Reformation (whose traces reached to Veere, among other places), passing landscape paintings as mirrors of a history and landscape as a breeding ground for the future. Finally, we arrive at the question of how to respond to this history and its layers of meaning from a contemporary audiovisual practice, which in itself is inextricably intertwined with landscapes through the mining of minerals facilitated by our technologies (Wright).

The Dutch landscape paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries reflected the political, economic, and religious transformations of that era and the changing relationship between man and the physical landscape (Adams, Schama). Not only are these landscape paintings mirrors of their time, they also influenced the appearance of the real landscape. Along with the rise of the topographical approach to landscape in cartography and painting, they directly impacted the development of garden and landscape design as an art form (Antrop, Darke, Olwig, Rancière, Tuan).

How landscape was thought about, particularly the ideal of control over land and nature, and the extensive land reclamation that went with it, is also linked to the ideology behind colonising other areas and then (re)shaping them into one's own familiar landscape (Bluwstein, Tolia-Kelly, Smith).

Reflections of Upheavals

The Dutch landscape paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries reflect political, economic, and religious upheavals of the time (Adams, Schama).

In the religious sphere, there was the Reformation in the 16th century, which led to the reform of various churches in the Northern Netherlands. In Veere, the church was assigned to the Protestants in 1572 (PKN Gapinge-Veere). The ensuing Iconoclasm also reached this region, where various religious images and sculptures were destroyed. In the paintings of the time, Christian iconography and mythological themes gave way to a focus on landscape imagery, addressing subjects such as national heritage, identity, and the natural landscape of a nation (Tolia-Kelly).

In the political sphere, the Dutch Republic declared its independence from Spain in 1579, thus becoming an independent cultural entity, detached from the monarchy. During this period, the Republic expanded its territory through land reclamation from the sea and inland lakes, employing complex drainage systems and the construction of dikes and canals. The feudal system was less prominent in these areas, partly due to their less attractive geographical location. This meant that inhabitants and communities experienced less subordination to a lord and his land. Land was a common commodity that they could create and personally own (Adams). The transition from feudal to capitalist modes of production highlighted the role of the individual (Smith).

Economic upheavals then involved the Republic exploiting the global open market economy, with colonial and imperial expansions and the transformation of land elsewhere. Until the end of the 18th century, the Republic was a major power (Adams, Schama, Tolia-Kelly). The term ‘Golden Age’ refers to the Republic’s flourishing period in trade, science, and the arts, but it does not acknowledge the wars, poverty, human trafficking, and slavery that also characterised this era (Amsterdam Museum).

A Familiar View

In early landscape paintings from the 15th century, daily life, customs, and labour are depicted against a backdrop of orchestrated, harmonious, symbolic, and imaginative landscapes, inspired by Italian painting (see Bruegel, Joachim Patinir). When we look at the Dutch dune landscapes by Salomon van Ruysdael from the 16th century, we see a stark contrast with those earlier imaginary, symbolic landscapes. ‘The landscape had become a world of sand, mud, and weeds. It had once been mountainous; now it was amphibious’ (Schama p.68).
The grand and richly detailed portrayals of the landscape gave way to a local intimacy (Schama). The aim was not necessarily to depict the landscape as realistically or truthfully as possible (Schama). Landscape painters went on-site to make sketches and then completed the paintings in their studios. Settings were often depicted with more drama (Adams), and topographical elements such as riverbanks, ferries, dunes, and beaches were combined (Schama). Artistic freedom was employed in assembling elements and their perspective within the composition (Mauritshuis).
These landscape paintings do not represent a natural landscape but rather depict elements that evoke associations with individuals and local communities in recognizable formations of an area (Adams, Schama). They created a familiar view, interspersed with memories of other ‘landscapes of memory’ and spiritual values (Tolia-Kelly).

Storms and Dike Breaches, the Control and Idealization of Nature

Between 1590 and 1664, the Republic undertook various land reclamation projects, gaining over 110,000 hectares of land from the sea and inland lakes. Through drainage systems and the construction of canals and dikes, lower-lying areas were made suitable for habitation and agricultural activities. However, storms, dike breaches, and floods were not uncommon; they posed a greatest threat to the inhabitants. Landscape paintings documented both the impacts of dike breaches and the relocation of historical monuments to safer, higher areas. In this way, landscape paintings also served to convey an imaginary sense of control over nature, which daily posed the threat of destruction (Adams).
The abundance of winter landscapes can be attributed to the ‘Little Ice Age’ (from 1430 to the mid-19th century) and the ‘cold wave’ of the 16th century, during which temperatures were several degrees lower, winters were longer, and summers were more autumnal (KNMI). Images of communities ice skating on a common pond were popular in domestic settings among citizens and farmers. The winter landscapes expressed a (democratic) idealisation, as well as the everyday life and customs of a Northern European ‘Landschaft’ (Olwig, Schama).

Absences in the Landscape Paintings

It is notable that (new) commercial activities, such as the construction of canals and agriculture, were less frequently depicted in landscape paintings. Although agriculture was a common theme in 15th-century and Flemish paintings of the 16th and 17th centuries, it was rarely shown in Dutch landscape paintings. Cows and livestock, however, were prominently featured. The Dutch cow was known throughout Europe for its high milk and cheese production and became a national symbol from the 16th century onwards. While whaling and commercial ships occasionally appear in seascapes, representations of ships belonging to the Dutch East India Company are absent. However, colonial enterprises were depicted. A rare example of local industry in the Netherlands is the various bleaching fields near Haarlem, painted by Jacob van Ruisdael. Commercial activities were often less explicitly portrayed or publicly discussed and typically remained in the hands of private entrepreneurs, not for private use but for public service. The limited number of images of such activities may have served various functions: an escape from ‘modernity’, an appreciation of the countryside for city dwellers, or reinforcing a local, regional, shared history within a community. Additionally, it may have been a way to soften the ‘guilt’ about a landscape rapidly changing or even being destroyed by commercial enterprises (Adams).

Landscape as Scenery

The rise of optical instruments, together with the topographical approach in cartography and panoramas, marks a clear shift from the imaginary to the objective, from the irrational to the rational (Schama). Landscape paintings and maps were now used for strategic and military purposes (Schama), to territorialize political communities and colonise land (Bluwstein).
Almost simultaneously with the emergence of early imaginative landscape paintings, a new style in garden and landscape design arose (Antrop). The topographical perspective continued in the symmetry and uniformity, where the static was valued more than the dynamic, and the predictable over the unpredictable (Darke). Gardening became a visual art form, with its medicinal and nourishing aspects receding into the background (Rancière). Through landscape paintings, landscape evolved into an aesthetic concept and an ‘object of thought,’ introducing the separation between nature and culture (Tuan, Rancière).
The original meaning* of ‘landscape,’ which referred to the ‘real’ world of enclosed fields, estates, or administrative units, merged in England with that of ‘scene’ (Olwig, Rancière). As a result, ‘landscape’ no longer carried merely an administrative or political meaning but developed an association with ‘scenery,’ linked to ‘the world of illusion, theatre, art, and fantasy’ (Olwig, Tuan).

*One of the earliest references to the concept of ‘landschap’ (which means ‘landscape’ in Dutch) dates back to the early 13th century, referring to a political representation of a community (Antrop). Etymologically, the prefix ‘land’ stems from the Germanic language and refers to an area, as in estate, agricultural land, and common ground. The suffix ‘-schap’ means ‘creation, constitution, condition, or state’ and is related to the German verb ‘Schaffen,’ which means to create or shape (Olwig).

Landscape and Colonisation

Landscape paintings reflect the material and symbolic construction and appropriation of landscapes (Bluwstein), from the control and regulation of nature to cultural values and ideologies (Olwig, Bluwstein). It is this relationship between man and landscape that led to how indigenous space was handled within the colonisation project, with indigenous worldviews being reformed according to Western standards and spatial imagery. ‘Renaming the land was probably as ideologically powerful as changing the land itself. Indigenous children in schools, for example, were taught the new names for places that they and their parents had lived in for generations. These were the names which appeared on maps and which were used in official communications. This newly named land became increasingly disconnected from the songs and chants used by indigenous peoples to trace their histories, to bring forth spiritual elements or to carry out the simplest of ceremonies’ (Smith p.53-54).

In the Wake of Landscape

‘Memory is always now. Memory as you construct it is neither merely present, nor past. It’s an in-between reality.’
- Trinh T. Minh-ha (Traveling in the Dark, p.220)

‘Landscape allows us and encourages us to dream’ (Tuan, p.101). Tuan suggests that landscape is connected to the future of humanity and the possibilities for the development of human consciousness (Tolia-Kelly). Also to be interpreted as how we understand ‘landscape’ and heritage today, and what paths they are headed down from here.
‘Memory sites,’ such as museums, are places where cultural values (of landscapes) are reinforced. When the dominant group or class imposes a particular interpretation of art and history, certain socio-ecological issues are reduced and some voices are marginalised, erased, or silenced (Bluwstein, Tolia-Kelly). It is therefore essential to incorporate embodied and alternative accounts of other (than Western) experiences of time and space (Tolia-Kelly).

‘Landscape is the work of the mind. Its scenery is built up as much from strata of memory as from layers of rock’ (Schama via Tolia-Kelly, p.331). ‘Landscape’ is intrinsically connected with technology and (audiovisual) practice, where minerals, earth, water, bodies, environments, and temporalities unfold, and where ‘traces of political, economic, and cultural contexts circulate’ (Wright). Listening to ‘landscape’ means listening to a multiplicity of landscapes here and elsewhere, or ‘an elsewhere within here’ (Minh-ha), their actors, audible and inaudible phenomena, human and more-than-human presences, entangled (geological) temporalities that challenge rigid systems. Listening to ‘landscape,’ and by extension making field recordings, is thus the assembly of ‘various meanings and gaps, always vulnerable and uncertain’ (Wright).