Ellen Kooi (Leeuwarden, 1962) is one of most reputed emerging Dutch photographers in the international scene along with such relevant artists as Hellen van Meene, Ruud van Empel or Erwin Olaf. Her work has been praised by the public, collectors, critics, and curators and is being exhibited in many public collections worldwide.

After her solo exhibition at La Casa Encendida last year and her overwhelming success at ARCO 09, we present her latest project “Borrowed Landscapes” which has been selected for the Festival Off of PhotoEspaña 09.

The project shows her most recent work that responds to the concept of integrating landscape and figures. This was already accomplished by painters like the Flemish Patinir centuries ago, giving a paramount importance to the landscape itself, shifting it from being just a backdrop to becoming a main character of the narrative, like a person. Ellen constructs scenes, or rather movies, that she inserts fluidly in a Dutch landscape like a Japanese gardener who makes her garden melt into the surrounding landscape to which it belongs. This way she creates something larger and “superior”.

The re-invention of the “landscape with figures” that Ellen accomplishes goes much further than a simple reinterpretation or re-enactment but, on the contrary, she builds from scratch, out of the daily, images that are full of magic and symbolism that make us feel an inner heartbeat, a sensation.