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Anne-Marie van Meel

In my work the emphasis is on the way we approach time and history in our daily life, the assumption of what we think time is, how all this influences our view on the past, and how to find a way to overcome the 'distance' between now and then.

Themes I have been concerned with include the manifestation of the relation between us and historical figures in space (for example rooms), and the 'moments in between' (tussenmomenten). History tends to focus on 'Great Events' (such as WOII). I'm interested in the 'moments in between': the moments that come before or after great events, the 'in between moments' that are so common in every day life; even in the life of great men (napoleon looks down at his boots on the battlefield). These are the moments that include every day actions of famous or forgotten historical figures.

I am very interested in houses. Houses lay so close to people's every day experience of the time they live in. Knowing more about the history of the house and how people spend their every day life in it, is for me a way to understand more about how it must have been like to live in another time. And to feel that the time we live in is also just one other time, no more important than other ages.

Human behaviour and the simple movements of the human body are used as guidelines in understanding and relating to a history that -I think- has a lot in common with our present live. In order to approach history not as the exotic 'other' but as something that lies very close to our reality - although human activities have changed radically throughout the centuries.

Letters from historical persons, reenactments of past situations, similarities in interiors and repeated movements of the human body become keys to an alternative view on history, in order to take away the veil thats blurs our view on the appearance of the past as it is.

As a timebased medium, video is for me a tool that gives the possibility of combining text, image and sound in a way that allowes me to create a new reality, with a new duration; escaping from the duration daily live has. In combining video with sculpture and drawing, I intend to create an intimate atmosphere where the dialogue between the video, the sound and the spatial arrangements invite the audience to relate to the space as a whole.

www.anne-marievanmeel.nl

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