From 11 December 2026 to 11 April 2027 the Nederlands Fotomuseum will present Dag Nederland, an exhibition of work by photographer and filmmaker Marwan Magroun. The exhibition will combine existing work from different periods with new photographs that Magroun has taken specially for Dag Nederland. In his photographs and films Magroun explores what it means to be Dutch, who decides who is seen as Dutch and who is allowed to identify themselves as Dutch. Rooted in themes like intimacy, family, identity and representation, his work paints a changing picture of the Netherlands. Magroun shows in this latest series how ‘Dutchness’ is continually reshaped, claimed and redefined.
The title, Dag Nederland, is deliberately ambiguous. ‘Dag’ in Dutch can be used both as a greeting and as a farewell. This ambiguity ties in with the questions Magroun raises in the exhibition about Dutchness and the nation’s self-image. He examines who has the right and standing to portray the Netherlands, and who is able and permitted to become part of that image.
“Dag Nederland came out of a question I kept asking myself: ‘What image of the Netherlands do I identify with?’ I grew up in this country, feel at home here, but at the same time I have not always recognised the picture presented by others. This exhibition is an attempt not only to question that picture, but also to claim space in it. So Dag is both a greeting and a farewell. Not to the Netherlands, but to a fixed idea of what the Netherlands should be.” — Marwan Magroun
Magroun travelled the country for his new work in Dag Nederland, to deepen his own understanding of the Netherlands’ self-image. The series uses familiar features of the Dutch landscapes and stereotypical elements of the national visual idiom. Polders, windmills, flags, churches and dikes form the backdrop to portraits that combine various aspects of Dutchness. Working with his subjects, Magroun adds news layers of meaning to these familiar images, presenting identity not as something fixed, but as something that you can – and must – define for yourself.
Magroun thus builds on themes that have been a key element in his body of work for some time. He works on the basis of encounter and collaboration, his sitters playing an active role in how they are depicted. His portraits combine pride, vulnerability and the everyday, and they force the viewer to see beyond stereotypes.
“Marwan Magroun occupies a unique position in contemporary Dutch photography, precisely because he raises questions about what Dutchness actually means. He does it with a keen photographer’s eye and method, consciously collaborating with the people he portrays, and their personal and social narratives. In all this, he shows a discerning and moving sensitivity to intimacy and imagination.” — Zippora Elders, General & Artistic Director Nederlands Fotomuseum
This will become clear in this exhibition, alongside earlier work, including the series Intimacy and Young Muslims. Intimacy started with a personal moment, when Magroun photographed his mother and stepfather together in their bedroom. This became the starting point for a series of tender portraits focused on love and physical proximity, in which Magroun shows a side of first-generation immigrants that is rarely seen. Six photographs from the series are now in the Rijksmuseum’s collection.
People are the key focus of Young Muslims, too. The portraits were taken to illustrate a series of interviews by journalist Somajeh Ghaeminia in Trouw newspaper.
In these two series, Magroun shows that people from all over the world are first and foremost individuals with relationships, desires, ambitions, dreams and ideas, something he feels is often overlooked.
Marwan Magroun (b. 1985, Rotterdam) is a photographer and filmmaker. Entirely self-taught, he has developed a distinctive photographic idiom in which social themes like identity and representation play a key role. Since 2017 he has worked for several newspapers, magazines and organisations. He has received multiple awards, including the Paul Peters Photography Prize (2020) and the Dutch Photographers SO Award (2021). In 2022 he was appointed Fotograaf der Nederlanden (Dutch Photographer Laureate). In Dag Nederland he reflects as Photographer Laureate on a period spent portraying the country from a range of perspectives.
Dutch press Hester Gersonius – Nederlands Fotomuseum hgersonius@nederlandsfotomuseum.nl