van butler the tragic story of a dutch colony that emigrated to midwest usa at the beginning of the 20th century - minnesota - usa | ®2003 |
While visiting north-minnesota, during my art-residency at new york mills cultural center, i met people there whose ancestors had settled in that area in the hope of following up with the realization of the american dream.a group of them met with a very sad destiny. not only were they lured into believing that the promise land was a real paradise for farming and setting up profitable industries, (north minnesota is a beautiful place for fishing and hiking), given the harsh winter temperatures and the impossibility to make its soil produce plenty of crops, making a living there was and still is a big chanllenge to mother nature. after more than 100 years from the first arrivals this small crowd of dutchees are still pursuing their unaccomplished american dream. most of the dutch families living there feel strongly related to their cutural backgrounds, though very few of them have ever had a chance to go visit the places where their ancestors ever came from.(...)

butler is the name of one of the small cities where most of these dutchees are still living. unfairly enough this one bears a name that does little justice to their past and their culture. my proposal to them was to request their city major that the city change into something that refered in one way or another to the netherlands and the dutch language. hence my provocative placing the "van" in front of "butler". from these visits and interviews in that area, which i carried out in the hope of finding more and more interesting personal stories, i collected a number of photographs and notes. my intention is to make a short documentary on the least lucky dutch settlers and expose in it their lives and dreams nowadays.