First exhibition in the fortress of Vijfhuizen, currently converted into an art centre. Removed from history, yet part of a new story, another building is turned into a site where things are exhibited rather than made or, in this case, defended. Conceived for the exhibition 'In this Colony'.

Fort Vijfhuizen, 2005|
Curated by Sven Lütticken and Maxine Kopsa

with: Danai Anesiadou & Alexandra Bachzetsis, Sven Augustijnen, Maria Barnas & Germaine Kruip, Stan Douglas, Chris Evans, Andrea Fraser, Ryan Gander, Laura Horelli, Twan Janssen, Krijn de Koning, Gabriel Kuri, Sean Snyder, Roy Villevoye.

Always open to new ideas and discoveries, Felix Nadar was the first in France to photograph Paris from the basket of an ascendant balloon. Even though a proponent of heavier-than-air traveling devices, he financed the construction of Le Géant, a balloon that met with an unfortunate accident on its second trip. Nonetheless, he was instrumental in setting up the balloon postal service that made it possible for the French government to communicate with those in Paris during the German blockade in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870.

Nadar also landed his big balloon once in the Haarlemmermeerpolder. It was the first airship to land here, not far from the location where where now Schiphol airport is ever expanding.