Jap Sam Books

The Best Place / De Beste Plek

Roaming the cultural ground of the rural east in the Netherlands / Een tocht langs de culturele grond van de gemeente Hardenberg

Wapke Feenstra

In 2007, the book The Best Place by Wapke Feenstra (myvillages.org) was published by Veenman Publishers |(now defunct). In 2012 Jap Sam Books will publish two new titles by myvillages.org: Vorratskammer / Pantry and A Photographic Portrait of A Landscape

Jap Sam Books has decided together with the artist to distribute the remaining copies of The Best Place. You can order a copy of this book for € 24,50 directly from our publishing house.

The Best Place is an art project by Wapke Feenstra. The project forms part of myvillages.org and desribes a quest in the Municipality of Hardenberg in the rural east of the Netherlands.

Wapke Feenstra visits fourteen locations which locals nominated as 'The Best Place' and marks them with her text cart. She listens to the stories of the people she meets and takes soil samples.

Meantime Antje Schiffers (myvillages.org) paints the homes of three local farmers in return for video footage of the farming activities.

An essay by Pietsie Feenstra (Sorbonne Nouvelle, Paris III) describes 'The Best Place' as an encounter between conceptual art and cultural heritage.