Ambassador Eva Vriend

Eva Vriend wrote the book 'Het nieuwe land' about the history of the development of Flevoland. She met Paul de Kort at a lecture where she found out they share a passion for the story of the Noordoostpolder.

“I have given quite some lectures about my book. At one of these lectures I met Paul de Kort. He was then still working on a proposal for a seventh land art work in Flevoland. Paul told me he was considering a specific place in the Noordoostpolder at the Zwarte Meer to realize his work. I know that place very well. I used to go there for a walk along the dike. This place is truly a pearl in the polder. If you’re standing there, also in his words, you’re able to see the horizon everywhere: of the old land and of the new land. Soon his work will arise there.

He further researched the polder for his proposal and read, among other things, my book. It’s fun to see how someone who’s himself not from the polder, nonetheless gets so much from the landscape. Personally I’m mainly concerned with the history of the polder: with the experience of its residents and the human side of the story. Landscape-wise I’m not an expert, except that I grew up as a farmer’s daughter. Paul is mainly interested in the physical side of the landscape and its manipulability. Thus, although we are interested in the same thematic, we are engaged with the polder in very different ways. That’s what I really like about it. Since then we stayed in contact.

PIER+HORIZON is also a very nice study. For example what I found enthralling is how Paul incorporates the wind in his design. I grew up in the polder and I still have a love-hate relationship with the wind. The east wind and the west wind, you can always feel the wind here. When the work is realized and the reeds will have grown, you’ll see a sort of giant vane floating on this lake. You will also be able to talk about it when you’re there: to state where the wind comes from, to share if it’s an eddy or an east wind. His work is not there yet, but when it’s realized you can actually go there, show it to others and talk about it.

One of my secret missions is to ensure that PIER+HORIZON will be a success and that the people who live here will somehow engage with the work. It would be wonderful to organise events around the work, like a poetry evening or a nice kind of festival. Something like that would be fantastic at this place. Personally I think it would also be fun to organise a sort of ‘write now’ meeting for writers. It’s a great place to sit together for an hour, to write and then to share what has been written. You could also paint landscapes or do something with photography. When the seventh land art work is there, it would be great if people initiate events around the work.”