Koen Hauser's The Lustre of the Land

In 2008, Koen Hauser teamed up with Spaarnestad Photo to create The Luster of the Land, a project that integrates archival appropriation and a kind of performative self-portraiture. As he explains in his statement:

"By means of a selection based on personal interests, fascination, and my obsession with the notion of ‘the diorama’, it interweaves impressions of a (re-created) fantasyworld with pictures on the process of creation, using my personal appearance. These images of the creation process - I call them performéances -, are the residue of performances held to invoke the spirit of creation. Together with the narratives of old photographs they form an installation on imagination and ephemerality."


From "The Luster of the Land"
© Koen Hauser and Spaarnestad Photo & Nationaal Archief


From "The Luster of the Land"
© Koen Hauser and Spaarnestad Photo & Nationaal Archief


From "The Luster of the Land"
© Koen Hauser and Spaarnestad Photo & Nationaal Archief


From "The Luster of the Land"
© Koen Hauser and Spaarnestad Photo & Nationaal Archief


From "The Luster of the Land"
© Koen Hauser and Spaarnestad Photo & Nationaal Archief