I didn’t expect to meet everyone this way is a quote from a tweet by a Chinese nature park, responding to the revelation that their “highest waterfall in China” was being supplied with water through pipelines. Through the tweet, the nature park had the waterfall respond personally to the resulting commotion, explaining that the pipelines allow it to show itself at its most beautiful for visitors, even during the dry season.
Photo by Hanna Jansen
The containerized waterfall was created in response to its intended location: an empty Dutch floodplain landscape that has recently been thoroughly redeveloped to accommodate a high-water level of the IJssel river. Here, agricultural land was turned into a ‘natural’ wetland with gullies and streams, where nature was allowed to take its course. Albeit only according to policy conditions. Trees are being pruned to prevent water being obstructed, and eroding water banks are being replenished with sand. And because everything has its place and rules, the area sometimes resembles a more of an urban development project than the natural environment that was intended.
Photo by Hanna Jansen
I didn’t expect to meet everyone this way plays with the malleability of landscape, contrasting visions upon it, and the compromises that ultimately lead to what we consider as natural. Every so often, you read about plans to build a mountain in the flat land of the Netherlands. And considering the way the Dutch landscape has been cultivated, it’s quite possible that this mountain will one day actually be built. In this regard, the waterfall in a container showed a glimpse of the future.
Photo by Hanna Jansen
