In collaboration with Beeld & Geluid and the Grafisch Atelier Hilversum, I delved into the archives of Beeld & Geluid alongside 5 other creators. The plan was to draw inspiration from an image in the archive and create a piece of work based on that, which we would later screen print at the Grafisch Atelier Hilversum. From this emerged my piece titled "Tijdsloop".
During my exploration of the archive, I came across a film still from about a hundred years ago. As I watched with enthusiasm and sometimes confusion the daily life of other Dutch people, I stumbled upon a woman who quietly smiled into the camera. Her gaze into the camera sparked a strange interaction. She had no idea that I would be viewing her now, as someone from a completely different world, about a hundred years in the future. But that one glance made me realize something. I was looking at her from a modern perspective, unwittingly placing myself above her as the most modern human. Ironically, someone a hundred years from now might do the same with me. It seems like a cycle that human history continues to repeat.
However, amidst all those thoughts, I found humanity in that image above all else. Despite her different attire and the old-fashioned black-and-white image, her gaze exuded the same humanity that I see in myself when I look in the mirror. We often think that we are so different now, but in reality, we are all just humans, clothed in the fashion of our time. This encounter with the past reminds me that, despite the centuries that separate us, the core of our humanity always remains the same, captured in that one glance from a woman, a century ago.
