1975-2001: Dutch History Photo Commissions > Recreation in the Netherlands
Exhibition: 1991
The Dutch watch more and more television and video, and they go to museums, bars, restaurants and amusement parks more and more often. Cinema and theatre attendance on the other hand decreased, alongside the reading of books and newspapers. This means that recreation patterns changed substantially between the fifties and the eighties of the twentieth century. Compared to the fifties, Dutch people can spend twice as much money per leisure hour on recreation. The leisure industry benefits from this and capitalizes on the demand for ready-made recreation.
Both new and traditional ways of recreation were photographed by Theo Bos and Hannes Wallrafen in 1990. Theo Bos photographed leisure activities of the Dutch in the form of day trips to previously announced events such as: the Akersloot Mud Run, the Workum-Warmond Crap Race, the The Hague Horse Days and the National Marbles Championship in Noordeloos. Together with theatre group "Tender", Wallrafen staged forms of modern recreation, often in a private circle, for instance the sex chat line as a leisure activity, a living-room concert, a balcony party.
