We are pleased to announce that New Dutch Views #10, The Netherlands (2018) by Marwan Bassiouni has been acquired by the Middlebury College Museum of Art in Vermont.
Part of Bassiouni’s notable New Dutch Views series (2018–2019), the photograph was taken from inside a mosque in the Netherlands, capturing the landscape beyond through its windows. The series challenges conventional Western perceptions of Islam by positioning mosques not as spaces apart from their surroundings, but as integral parts of the European landscape and built environment.
Characterised by natural lighting and precise digital techniques, Bassiouni’s photographs render interior and exterior spaces with equal clarity, creating a dialogue between the architectural space of the mosque and the landscape beyond. Drawing on visual references to Islamic artistic traditions alongside contemporary photographic approaches, the works explore the intersections of landscape, architecture, cultural identity and belonging.
Since 2021, Bassiouni has expanded this body of work into the ongoing project New Western Views, comprising photographs made across the United Kingdom, Switzerland, Canada and the United States. Continuing his exploration of landscape and cultural identity, the project considers how places of worship are situated within, and contribute to, the social and visual fabric of their surrounding environments.
The Middlebury College Museum of Art, located in Middlebury, Vermont, is a teaching museum that serves the students, faculty and wider community of Middlebury College. Its collection spans a broad range of periods, cultures and artistic media, supporting the study and appreciation of art across diverse historical and contemporary contexts.