Tracy in Nederland
Tracy Metz (journalist, author en presenter) is the winner of the Grote Maaskant Award 2016, a biennial prize for a person that stimulates the debate on architecture, landscape and urban design by publications, teaching or commissioning. For this special occasion she developed the multimedia project ‘Tracy in Nederland‘ (Tracy in the Netherlands) and she wrote the essay ‘Vlucht naar Voren‘ (A Flight Forward).
In ‘Tracy in Nederland’ she takes the viewer on a journey through the Netherlands. Flying over the country using Google Earth you listen to audio tours with interviews with, among others, Arnold Reijndorp (Maaskant Prize winner 2012), Henk Ovink (special envoy pf water) and Hans Mommaas (director PBL). Typographic elements of Jan Rothuizen create special relationship with the built environment. Also, you can find a showcase with a collection of key pieces from her work.
Part of the project is the essay ‘Vlucht naar Voren’ (A Flight Forward) in which she looks back and to the future about developments in the city. She describes how large forces such as the masstourism, big money of foreign investors and a shortage of housing put pressure on the city, but in fact are the result of the success of the city. The question she poses is: “How do we manage that success so it not only befalls us, but we can take control over it to improve the city?” Dutch cities think on a small scale. We suffer from a Calimerocomplex and are surprised that we all play with the big boys now.”