Greenhouse/Hoofddorp

In 2006, Ribas was nominated by the Universitat Politècnica de Valencia (Spain) to undertake a fellowship funded by the International Photography Research Network. Ribas’s fellowship was hosted by the University of Leiden in Holland. The concept behind the project involved locating photographers in countries with which they were unfamiliar. Ribas produced two bodies of work that focused on the industrialisation of agriculture and the development of new corporate sites. The photographic series 'Hoofddorp' looked at the architecture and the dislocated nature of the corporate site/new town very close to Schiphol Amsterdam International airport. This series of 20 colour photographs focuses on the broader subject of the suburbanisation of corporations in the contemporary European city. 'Greenhouse' is a double channel HD video installation about the changing agricultural landscape of Wieringermeer. The installation focuses on one specific location in this polder: the building site of a massive greenhouse that an agricultural corporation, Agriport, is constructing by the A7, near Medemblik, north of Amsterdam. The film was made in November 2006 when the site was in a state of transition: the new building with its unfinished infrastructures and machinery coexisted with the old farms on which land the greenhouse was being built. In the film, which incorporates interviews with local residents, past and future compresses the present into a very thin layer in the landscape. 'Greenhouse' is about a ‘suspended’ landscape; it is a journey along the gap between two times. The IPRN has a mission to develop, sustain and promote contemporary photography through commissioning of new work, exhibitions, publications and an on-line archive. It aims to promote a better understanding of cultural change through photographic commissions by building international partnerships.