Silhouettes
Metal silhouettes, with ‘wise-sayings’ about time, moved slowly from east to west along the shore of the North Sea during the 10-day Oerol Festival. The 300 silhouettes were relocated by the public walking backwards because that is how you move towards the future. They travelled six kilometers, instead of the 20 kilometers originally planned. The public, as they walked backwards dragging the silhouettes, were accompanied by live music and movement theater. It was movement theater at the edge of daily reality, alienating yet informal and seemingly spontaneous that made actors of the audience. The Opdrift project was about ‘deferred encounters’ that made time visible. The tension span that arises when you make an appointment in time; because appointments make time tangible.
Opdrift also reflected the wonder of time, for example: when, through active participation, you lose your sense of time. A chain letter email was distributed asking the public to contribute a ‘wise-saying’ in 10 words or less, along with a maximum 100-word explanation. The ‘wise-sayings’ were collected in the book Opdrift, with an introduction that reveals ‘every aspect’ of time by Wilbert Cornellisen, poet and essayist. A film was shot of the entire process and the journey along the coast.
After Oerol, the silhouettes visited two other locations in the Netherlands, and were then delivered to their new owners, who through their purchase helped make this project possible.
