M HKA Ensembles

Book, 20 x 13.4 cm, 112 p, language: Dutch, publisher: Bleiswijk: Studio 3005/Proba 0007, ISBN: 978 90 78627 06 7.

Collection: Collection M HKA, Antwerp (Inv. no. B 2025/470).

Literary synopsis *Regional Novel (Sectioned Landscape)* is a collection of notes (‘Aantekeningen’) that focus on the eastern part of the A1 motorway that runs between Deventer and the German border. The notes deal with the impact of motorways on the Dutch landscape and the consequences for humans and animals that live near the highway. Infrastructures are piling up and branch out constantly. The Dutch landscape resembles the intricate play of lines in the palm of a hand. As in palm reading, the physical infrastructure mirrors emotional, mental and spiritual powers with which it is connected. *Regional Novel (Sectioned Landscape)* focuses on habitats at the edge of the highway, in search of for remnants of physical and emotional use. Relation of the novel to the artist’s practice *Regional Novel (Sectioned Landscape)* was a commission assignment realised for A1: a collaboration between Kunstcentrum Hengelo, Kunstvereniging Diepenheim and Kunstenlab Deventer in the context of the event *Sectioned Landscape* in September/October 2007 (with thanks to the province of Overijssel). *Sectioned Landscape* is the result of an investigation of the eastern part of the A1 by artists Jeroen van Westen and Julian Scaff, and historian Siebe Rossel, in collaboration with engineering bureau and consultancy Tauw. In this study, the impact of the motorway on the landscape is illustrated by means of a number of ‘structural flaws’, that is, locations at which the motorway cuts through various historical, local infrastructures. *Regional Novel* is one of the artistic contributions that react to these ‘flaws’. The collection of stories *Regional Novel (Sectioned Landscape)* was written on site, in a caravan, in June 2007. The author thanks Jan, Ineke and Yanne for providing the caravan and Jeroen van Westen for the free use of his photographs. The work consists of a novella and a compact disc with spoken stories (audiobook) for A1-car drivers. [Novel website](http://www.studio3005.nl/uitgeverij/?foto_id=21)