Nynke Deinema
De nieuwe aardappeleters (The New Potato Eaters), 2011
double projection DV-PAL 4:3 transferred to 16:9
length: 8:033 min
Who would Van Gogh choose as models for his potato eaters today? Taking this question as a starting point, Nynke Deinema portrayed Eastern European seasonal labourers working at nurseries around Zundert and are housed on campsites. In many paintings, Van Gogh emphasized the workers’ hands as a representation of their harsh living conditions. Through the hands of her subjects, Deinema tells the story of people occupying an indispensable, but also unseen, place in society.
Rachel Gruijters
When Yellow Gets Blue, 2021
single-channel video, HD, colour, 1.85:1, stereo, English
length: 11:00 min
Vincent did not so much paint nature itself, but his mental experience of it. Rachel Gruijters set out to work with this in mind. In ‘When Yellow Gets Blue’ she depicts a walk that slowly becomes a journey through thoughts and dreams. In Zundert, she recorded the sounds of nature and turned them into a hypnotic soundtrack. The sounds ultimately become the melody of a song, sung by the artist herself. The fact that Gruijters likes to be inspired by the melodramatic atmosphere of old Hollywood films is clearly visible here.
Sylvie Zijlmans and Hewald Jongenelis
2021
HD video, 1920 x 1080, stereo
length: 06:45 min
In ‘The Mother Of All Failure’ two figures walk through the beautiful landscapes of the De Moeren estate, near Zundert. The taller of the two loudly shares an inner monologue about his victimhood and the role the smaller one might play in that. We see a poignant, painful and at the same time humorous sequence of scenes, without a denouement. In this costume drama, Sylvie Zijlmans and Hewald Jongenelis investigate how trauma and family drama can be driving forces for artistry. They empathise with young Vincent, who must have frequently felt misunderstood and disrespected. This brought up their own repressed childhood traumas, which they processed in this film.
