Nee, het was zo

Nee, het was zo/ No, it was like this (2022)
Groupshow with collective De Derde Plaats at Eight Cubic Meters, a unique window gallery in the city centre of Amsterdam.
My individual contribution to the mostly collective work we showed, was a printed QR code (here seen on the left).

Photo by Jordi de Vetten

Dérive

(1. drifting off course, drift; aller à la dérive, drifting off, drifting away; fig. wandering off, no longer controlling oneself; running aground) 

In the late summer of 2022 the six members of De Derde Plaats met at 10 ‘o’clock in the morning until 10 o’clock that night. 

One of our members, Sifra, was triggered by the critique of Miriam Rasch on the role of data in our desire for a controllable and automated world, pleading for more friction. On ways to escape this desire for control, the dérive walk came to mind.  

It sparked the idea for the collective for the dérive as a tool of non-action, non-protest. 

The conversations with the collective about executing such a dérive, immediately evoked concerns related to safety, time, and experience. Ironically, these very concerns touch on the essence of the idea; daring to let go of control and (false) safety, enduring the uncontrollability of an experience. An experience that can just as well be deadly boring as epic. Shared but experienced in six different ways.