- Naomi Hattler
A CITY NOT A CITY
IDENTITY––––––LANDSCAPE––––––CULTURE
Is the landscape that surrounds me part of my identity?
Is culture tied to landscape?
What is identity? And what does the connection to the city I live in change inside of me?
(1) SEARCHING FOR IDENTITY
From many voices of people working and living in Genk I heard the phrase: "Genk is not a real city." The city centre seems artificial and empty when we are strolling around in Genk for the first time. What makes a city a city?

How do the residents of Genk identify themselves with the place they live in and its history?
And what is Genk now?
(2) RETHINKING LANDSCAPE
Seeing the city as a landscape, a network of people, places, history and cultures. A place of constant exchange and complex interconnections. How does the map of my city look like in my mind? How do I navigate in a city I don't know?
Often, thoughts manifest itself when you work with your hands and let your mind wander around.
In this material experimentation, I tied long cotton threads around nails that I had hammered into a square piece of wood. I tried to imagine the structure of a city through the material. The urban network. The chaos that forms a unity.

(3) IMAGINING CULTURE
Why am I doing things the way I do them? What do I adapt from the outside world and make my own?
Identity is identification.
Culture is imitation.
