De Meelfabriek (flour factory) – Leiden

This is the place where ’the magic happens’. From 2013 I’ve been filming here. Series like Natures Mortes (2013-2015), Respice Finem (2017-2018), and now Homo Bulla (2019-2020) were created here.

Unfortunately, everything comes to an end. The dismantling and construction of the Meelfabriek, as part of the redevelopment into a complex of homes, businesses and a hotel, is in full swing. I will be able to work here until autumn 2020.

Homo Bulla in art

The Homo Bulla theme in art has existed for centuries. On seventeenth-century vanitas paintings and engravings by Jan Steen, Barent Fabritius, and Hendrik Goltzius children blow soap bubbles or they fill pig’s bladders with air. You may think it seems innocent child amusement, the opposite is true. This is a warning about the fleeting nature of life. Museum De Lakenhal in Leiden owns a vanitas painting by David Bailly from 1651. Here, too, the soap bubbles point to the shortness of existence before they burst.

Vanitas painting by David Bailly from 1651. With soap bubbles and skull.
Collection Museum De Lakenhal

FEBRUARY 6, 2022

Completed!

Last year, I thought I had finished the 17-part video series Homo Bulla, which was shot in 2019 and 2020 at the Meelfabriek in Leiden.

But in 2021 I started editing again. Three triptychs emerged, all with a length of 04.28 minutes: The Last Waltz, Nocturnes and We Float. I adjusted the colour grading for each triptych. The Last Waltz in shades of brown, Nocturnes in grey-blue and We Float in black and white. The other eight videos are in Satellites and do not have a synchronous duration or colour grading. We Float premiered in 2021: Two videos from the triptych in the Vishal in Haarlem during the exhibition Slow Movements and two videos in the art walk Through the looking glass in Leiden. When the editing was completed at the end of 2021, I made a print-on-demand edition of 44 pages. Now the Homo Bulla project is finally finished!

New additions: videos So Long

New additions in Satellites are the videos So Long I and So Long II. Camera: Michiel Keller. Both films are in portrait orientation.

Videos So Long I and II, cameraman Michiel Keller

Video and light Artwalk in Leiden

Through the looking glass
27 December 2021 – 27 February 2022
Light & video art route
Former Watergasfactory, Leiden
Stichting EST art foundation

’Through the looking glass’ is an exhibition by EST art foundation. Until the end of February 2022 you can see more than 10 light and video artworks around the power plant in Leiden, daily from dusk to 11 p.m.

My contribution consists of video We Float III on monitor & We Float I as a projection.

We Float III. Streetvideo made by Iemke van Dijk

We Float II and III in De Vishal

Slow Movements was a group show about slow and organic processes of movement such as growth, decay, flow and gravity. My contribution included premiered projections of We Float II and We Float III in the main space.

Video We Float III in De Vishal

Editing

2021 was all about the final edits. All previous versions were taken in hand. From all the footage 3 triptychs were created, each with a duration of 04.28 minutes: The Last Waltz, We Float and Nocturnes. The Satellites section contains 8 videos with different durations.
The colorgrading was also tackled. The Last Waltz was made in shades of brown, Nocturnes in grey-blue and We Float in black and white.

Editing The Last Waltz I

January 15, 2020 – filmshoots Passengers

The Passengers series is made in Silo D on the top floor.

Silo D, top floor

Filmshoots Nocturnes and The Last Waltz

Soap bubbles professionals Saskia Marges and Jeroen Maatman from Bubblusion came to Leiden. For the series The Last Waltz they created special smoke bubbles. For the series Nocturnes they made a.o. ‘clustered’ shapes. In The Last Waltz one session was filmed simultaneously from three different points of view. This resulted in three testimonies of one event. In Nocturnes two films were shot in the former boiler room, one after the other. The other was shot on the fifth floor of the same building.

Former boiler house 2nd floor, Saskia Marges and Jeroen Maatman (Bubblusion)

Former boiler house 5th floor, from left to right myself, cameramen Gerald Jager, David Brouwer

Former boiler house top floor, Saskia Marges and Jeroen Maatman (Bubblusion)

Audio recordings for We Float V

Four female sound artists have performed sound improvisations for We Float V.
Audio recordings by Jan Stap.

Silo A, small space, 5th floor, audio recordings by Jan Stap

Filmshoot We Float V

In a dark space on the 5th floor of Silo A the film recordings were made for We Float V. Based on this footage the four sound artists will improvise on September 1st.

Silo A, small space, 5th floor

Film recordings We Float II, III, IV

It thundered and rained hard. In the warehouse and silo building was huge leakage. We made use of that.

Filmshoot We Float IV in the ‘S’ of the flour factory, highest point of the silos

Former warehouse, 2nd floor, shoot We Float III, cameraman Jan Stap

Former warehouse, 3rd floor, shoot We Float II , cameraman Jan Stap.
From left to right: Otto Selis, Jan Stap, Winand Stut, Elsbeth Klink

Film- and audio recording We float I & vocals

While four sound artists, Helga Kruse, Elsbeth Klink, Greet Meesters and Ingrid Appels, were making voice improvisations elsewhere in the building, the film recordings for We Float I also started.

Silo A,’ S’, top floor, from left to right Helga Kruse, Elsbeth Klink, Greet Meesters, Ingrid Appels

Sound experiment

Sound improviser Elsbeth Klink.

Silo A, small space, 5th floor, Elsbeth Klink