A Contrived Past. Korrie Besems

The current urban landscape in the Netherlands is more and more derived from neo-traditional architecture: complete suburbs are built in this style. The houses appear old but gleam with newness. Project developers do not sell individual houses but 'images' that look familiar and safe. Colourful artist's impressions on billboards with appealing slogans win still hesitant buyers over. Many picturesque examples from the history of Dutch architecture are nonchalantly copied and some locations could be mistaken for Disneyland. Examples from other countries are also popular; colonial houses from the southern United States and the 'Medieval' Tuscany village are most in demand.Korrie Besems documents this new urban landscape in her photographs. The guiding principle is the need to show the artificial and unnatural transformation process of the densely populated Netherlands. Our country has been self-made already for centuries by land reclamation, the struggle against water, a close-knit