51º 28’ 20.98” N, 4º 39’54.49” E
2020-2022
Artist research
During my residency at the Vincent van Goghhuis in Zundert (NL), the birthplace of Vincent van Gogh, I became interested in the amount of public attention this place receives. Despite the fact that almost nothing physical remained from the time that Vincent van Gogh lived there, it is still well visited.
My questions were: What is the social value of the house where Vincent van Gogh was born? In what way does the museum Vincent van Goghhuis contribute to this?
By publishing an obituary for the birth house of Vincent van Gogh in the local newspaper, I wanted to declare the house as “dead” in order to see what memories came up. Aside from the public discussion of whether or not it was a rude action to place this obituary, I didn’t receive many responses, memories or archival materials about the building. After some research, there appeared to be only one photo of the exterior and only a description of the interior.
Together with a team of a technical draftsmen, an animator and the director of the Vincent van Goghhuis. I was working on a one-to-one model of the outlines of the front and back facade of the missing birth house. These facades, made out of metal frames, should be placed in the exact same place where the original birth house was located. Unfortunately, the Zundert town council's aesthetics committee rejected the plan.
In memoriam
2020
obituary for the birhthouse of Vincent van Gogh, placed in the local newspaper: De Bode
In memoriam - Seeing and being seen, making visible and shielding work, sharing and withholding information are the conditions I had set in order to commemorate the birth house of Vincent van Gogh.
The textile canvases hanging at eye level divide the space into a corridor and three rooms. This layout is derived as the layout that the birth house of Vincent van Gogh. A ladder was placed in the middle of the space, offering visitors the opportunity to catch a glimpse from above.
51º 28’ 20.98” N, 4º 39’54.49” E
2022
This video visualizes the concept of the frames that will be installed in 2023.
https://vimeo.com/707726122/487c3aced0
