De Wallen Amsterdam

Dana Lixenberg’s ‘De Wallen Amsterdam’ is a portrait of Amsterdam’s Red Light District, the historic neighbourhood where she spent her early childhood. Her work on De Wallen, created between 2021 and 2025, does not focus on the excesses in the community, the result of overtourism and overconsumption. Nor does she take a position on the recent political and communal efforts to contain these excesses. Shot on film with a large-format camera, the series consists of intimate black-and-white portraits of residents, visitors, artists, sex workers, drifters, and entrepreneurs. These are shown alongside detailed interiors in colour, devoid of people, that reveal what lies behind the facades of the alleys and canals. ‘De Wallen Amsterdam’ also includes stills from her three-channel video installation, part of an exhibition at the Stadsarchief Amsterdam (Amsterdam City Archives).