COUNTRIES BORDERS SKIES

August – October 2018

The photo exhibition Countries Borders Skies featured a selection of Tim Hielkema’s work, chosen by the photographer himself. Some of the photographs had been acquired by the Museum in 1992 and had first been exhibited in 2016. Rotterdam-based Hielkema donated the other framed photographs to the museum in 2018.

His works show the land and sea borders of the Netherlands in their entirety shortly before the removal of border crossings within the EU. Over six months, he visited all the border crossing points with Germany and Belgium and travelled through the landscapes between them, from Nieuwe Statenzijl in Groningen through the extreme south of the province of Limburg all the way to Het Zwin nature reserve on the coast of Zeeland.

The Countries Borders Skies exhibition comprised a special series of black-and-white photographs reflecting the specific atmosphere of the border region. With the cooperation of Customs officers, workplaces and the work environment at border posts were also photographed. A few years later, these border posts were a thing of the past, following the creation of the European Union and the single market in 1993. This makes the series a unique period document of Dutch Customs work environment and the border region.