I attended Marleen Nagtegaal’s workshop without much knowledge of the role of scouting in the context of literary curatorship. She did not hesitate to get in depth in the matter. Although her choice to present herself and where she came from seemed a conventional introduction to a talk, her words immediately underlined the attention she pays to her own context, to where she speaks from. Her compromise to providing an organic and targeted event to her audience, thus, became obvious.
As Marleen spoke of the region where she works and lives, I felt drawn into the Northern landscape of the Netherlands, and, in particular, to the province of Friesland. Leeuwarden, she said, a considerably small city, is mainly a rural area, surrounded by countryside and nature. What is, then, the possibility for a literary curator to develop a successful event in that context? What is considered to be a successful event? Is it the one where the artistic vision of the curator is fully met and respected? If so, where does that artistic vision come from? Can we expect the people of Leeuwarden to be entertained by and attracted to the same things as somebody from, let’s say, Amsterdam?
One literary programme does not fit every place. As Marleen spoke of her audiences, writers and students, but also farmers and workers of every type, often people with no connection to the literary sphere, I did not feel as if she was presenting a case-study of her own experiences. For she was saying that only by looking directly in the eyes at the people who surround you, you can start to understand what you need to offer them.