Wapke Feenstra // Netherlands
Wapke Feenstra tends to interact with people and the local situation. Her works reflect upon local history, traditions, society and nature. She studies minutely the details of villages in different regions, listens carefully to the stories told by the local people, drawing our attention to the ‚little things’ generally ignored in our daily routine.
What are the impacts of a globally expanding economy on their local surroundings? How are towns and rural countries as well as our environment, soil, general supply and behaviour changing through industrialisation and commercialisation? And how are we interrelated to these developments, our actions, spirits and bodies?
Big questions usually make us shrink. Stemming from a rural Dutch family Wapke Feenstra is integrating topics like country life and the knowledge of the farmers about ‚their’ country and soil in her artworks. She takes pictures and collects stories especially by those farmers pushed aside by expanding city limits: even if they are able to sell their grounds for good money, their special knowledge about treating the fertile earth is left behind and rendered useless. These processes are reformatting our land- and cityscapes, which form an important part of our cultural heritage.
In and around Zaragoza Wapke Feenstra is starting her first project. For the ars electronica she will expand her fieldwork to Linz. The visitors of the ‚new’ city districts are provided with stories about the places ‚left over’ transmitted directly to their mobile phones. Even if we are involved in long distance call we experience on what kind of ground we are actually standing thanks to the sophisticated mobile technology.
Former Farmland was commissioned by Overtures and uses many levels of personal experiences to shed some light on how we treat our local cultural heritage as well as how we act in a mobile and globally cross-linked world.
15. & 16. July 2008: Waterpark EXPO 08, Zaragoza and its surroundings
4. - 9. September 2008: ars electronica Linz and its surroundings
Agua Benita : René Francisco // Cuba
Calling the Glacier : Kalle Laar // Germany
Endangered Waterfalls : Rúrí // Iceland
Former Farmland : Wapke Feenstra // Netherlands
City Concepts for Istanbul: Silvia Erdem // Turkey
Intrigue E : Silver & Hanne Rivrud // Norway



