Een gelaat van zand aan de grens van de zee [A face of sand at the boundary of the sea]

The crises in the world does not require a better approach, but a fundamentally different one. In this presentation a nomadic perspective is presented, a solution space instead of step-by-step plans. Thinking together about what the intention is, instead of formulating goals to be ticked off. Get set!

Michel Foucault as inspiration.

Michel Foucault bet in the 1960s that humanity is little more than a face of sand at the edge of the sea. The advantage of all future predictions is that they generally never come true. But Foucault’s bet seems to be becoming a reality for those who look around the world.

If we recognize that we have come this far, perhaps we can think about another way of dealing with the world we live in. After all, it has not turned out to be that effective to try to master everything in rules, laws, agreements, spreadsheets, protocols and step-by-step plans. In fact, perhaps that approach has led to the fact that the water now seems to be on our lips.

What if we exchange that mechanical paradigm for a nomadic perspective: not asking ourselves whether we are achieving the set goals, but thinking together about what the intention was.

A nomadic perspective

Wanting to control seems to be a constant in the way we interact with the world. Words have proven very effective for this. Words to indicate, point out and share things with others.

But meanwhile, those words seem to be detached from reality and lead a life of their own. Words can cover any load. Words can create their own reality apart from things. The word has meanwhile known many masters.

A nomadic perspective is not aimed at controlling the world we live in. Exploitation and cultivation are after all driven by a one-sided interest. Moreover, exploitation and manipulation are in principle finite, the illusion of the infinity of possibilities.

On the other hand, there is another concept that is based on moving along, survival, enduring and living together. On balance and unity. Life on the planet was based on this concept for centuries. And this life will always create a new balance itself. The world does not need man. Man needs the world to survive.

The presentation

This exhibition is part of a larger story that develops in chapters. The development of this whole can be followed on the website.

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The whole project I’m working on, and of which this exhibition is a part, is aimed at finding a new paradigm: to deal with the world in which we live in a different way. It is becoming increasingly clear that the way in which we have done this over the past centuries leads to Michel Foucault’s observation: that we are indeed a face of sand at the border of the sea.

It would be better for us to opt for a different perspective, a different way of dealing with reality instead of constantly patching up the current discourse and trying to maintain it with band-aids and strings.

In my work I use the metaphor of a nomadic perspective. That means that we literally have to break with the patterns we are used to handling. That we should no longer try to do things better, but really start doing things differently.