Everdien Breken: Making Dutch Space – a morphology of the idea of makeability

Everdien Breken, PhD in the Arts

My PhD research explores the idea of makeability  – the idea that the Dutch landscape can be made and remade as a matter of course. This idea is so self-evident in Dutch culture that the thought itself is almost invisible. But it is also deeply rooted in the consciousness of ‘the Dutch’ - a paradigm from which people in the Netherlands see, think and act.

My research asks the question where in the Netherlands 'makeability' manifests itself (the most), what it means and in what direction it is going. My research refers to two related artistic traditions: that of the artist who walks and that of the artist who makes maps. I will explore patterns of 'makeability' in a number of areas in the Netherlands and fix and reinforce those patterns in specific places.

Everdien Breken (1960) (MSc, MA) studied Geodesy at Delft University of Technology (1987) and Fine Art at the Master's programme of the Utrecht School of the Arts (2010). The area-oriented research method she uses for this research is rooted in her art practice of recent years and in her earlier working experience as a land surveyor.

• Supervisor: Dr. Steven Devleminck (KU Leuven / LUCA)

Research unit Intermedia

Duration: 2022 - 2026