Toko Waar Is Thuis
(2024/25)
Shelves full with stacks of spice trays. A buzzing refrigerator with chilled tropical fruits in cling film. Large bales of rice lie between stacked boxes of stock. You can walk between the exotic seasonings and foods. But, unlike in real life, this shop has little color. In Toko W.I.T. it is sober. You get an alienating feeling, as if life is missing. What's real? Where's life?
An essayistic video installation that takes the physical shape of a “Toko”.
Its biographical starting point takes the visitor from the internal world of the maker through a search for history, decolonisation, the ancestral natural landscape and intercultural symbols, reclaiming origin myths. Concluding with an universal longing for a deep connection with ancestors, nature and natural sites/genius loci, here, the toko is a hub within an ecosystem of stories. Like a grocery store, it connects the consumers, through seeds, spices and tropical fruits with the landscape.
The narrative is non-lineair, and storylines are to be discovered as the visitor browses through the little grocery store as they pass by objects and multiple video channels.
In development with support of:
Stimuleringsfonds voor de Creatieve Industrie
Instituut voor Beeld & Geluid
KF Hein fonds
