This project, titled ‘Land and Traces’, presents the landscape of the Kennemerduinen, in which remnants of bunkers can be found. These are fragments or parts of bunkers that have been left behind in the land. They have been partly absorbed by nature, and such a landscape can create a strange and unsettling contrast. The bunker fragments clash with their surroundings and disrupt our expectations of a harmonious natural environment.
This photo series is not a literal war story, but rather raises questions about landscape—what a landscape actually is, and how we relate to it.
This work stems from my fascination with the nature of our relationship to our environment and with what we call ‘landscape’. It questions what a landscape is and how the idea arose that land can naturally be considered property. These are photos of land. But is it landscape? The bunkers serve as a metaphor for who we are and how we deal with land.
– Bob Wielaard
Several of the photographs were exhibited in the Führer der Schnellboot bunker in The Hague during Bunker Day.