The first meeting with the location
This was our first time in the Netherlands and of course in Terschelling too. Before we arrived we have imagined the island but it is much more magical than what we thought of.
We were here because we had to find the best location for our project, called The Barentsz Dilemma, in wich we wiocus on the struggle between the wish to travel far away from home and the desire to return home. We want to recreate - in an imaginary way - the inner and outer circumstances of Barentsz’s journey. We want to relive and understand the motivations behind the extreme lifestyle of the explorer. How do we in 2011 relate to such a mission? Can we make such strong sacrifices to reach our goals? How far are we able to go?
Because the story of Willem Barentsz is a very Dutch story and we are not Dutch, we would like to go deeper into the cultural differences. We want to tell our reading of this heroic Dutch phenomenon.
Thanks for the many good ideas. The Oerol team understood us and supported us extremely well. During our meetings and cheery lunches we felt at ease because we felt that we’ve found the common language.
We visited the Barentsz Museum too. The professional staff was really helpful there too. We saw Barentsz’s reconstructed house in Nova Zembla too and we found out for example that the explorer had five children.
The location, our final choice inspires us to big exploits. This short but full residency made it possible to feel and visualise our project much more clear so in the next period we can work out our plans further. We felt the nature on our skin, we absorbed the uniqueness of the site and we realized that working with that has to be core essence in the work. We have to incorporate the sea and the dunes. It is an extrem choice for us, Hungarians, beacuse we do not have a sea, or an ocean. But we always wanted one. :-)
We had a very interesting time. But we also realized that it can also be very intersting for the locals how two foereign artists look at them and want to learn to understand them. We were fascinated by the people, the landscape, the language. We wish to be on the island again.
All
the best and thanks again. Emőke Kiss-Végh and Tamás Ördög |
   |
