Otani-Nieuwenhuize, “Holland Loci”

Otani-Nieuwenhuize, “Holland Loci” (Johan Nieuwenhuize/Shinji Otani)

Netherlands/Japan

Apr. 2019

Photography

Mondriaan Fonds | Ukiha City (*partly privately funded)

オータニ・ニューエンハウゼ『オランダ・ロキ』

オランダ/日本

2019年4月

写真

モンドリアン財団 | うきは市

日本語記事はこちら

Johan Nieuwenhuize and Shinji Otani stayed together in Ukiha for their third duo project in Japan, following Nagasaki Prefecture (with Rijks Museum) and Dazaifu Tenmangu Shrine (Fukuoka Pref.).

The project was based on an anthropological research on the connection between Japan and the Netherlands, which started in 17 C when the Japanese Shogunate was only allowing Dutch merchants access to the country via an island port called Dejima in Nagasaki, Kyushu.

The cultural, political, economical, and scientific influences that were brought by Dutch tradesmen through this channel for centuries on Japan’s history and culture was of immense significance, and are still visible in the modern-day landscape and people’s lives. Otani Nieuwenhuize aimed to capture such images that depict the Dutch spirit engraved in the traditional life of Ukiha, and the nearby city Fukuoka.

Their stay started with a research, hunting for the locations and looking for casts to be on the photographs, with a view to involving local cultural context and interacting with the residents.

They picked the subjects from the list they made of the items which were brought through Dutch trades to Japan since 1600s, including beer, badminton, tomatoes, school backpacks, etc. before going off to shooting.

Then according to the themes, Ukiha’s coordinator contacted local people to be on the photos. For instance, when they asked for “a boy and a girl in their early teens, in school uniforms to play badminton”, we involved a local twin brother and sister to perform on the rooftop of a local supermarket.

We also worked with a local high school’s photography club, asking the students to be the casts in the pictures of local landmark rice terrace.

The Show

The presentation of their work (in progress) was held using a whole street of central Ukiha as a venue. The local audience was invited to walk with the artists with smartphones in their hands to look for the works displayed, sometimes embedded in here and there of the townscape after dark.

The collaboration with Otani-Nieuwenhuize and Ukiha Omnicent continues in postproduction with a prospect of the finished-works’ exhibitions in museums both in the Netherlands and Japan.