Zeeland Soil / Zeeuwse Klei
(2013)
Year: 2013
Format: video tryptich (3x)
Runtime: 4hr 21min
What do you get when you aim the camera at a few square meters of clay for three continuous seasons? A surprising lot of things! Zeeland soil focusses on the microcosmos of a small surface area of no more than a few square meters. During a period of nine months, every day the camera was filming for 1 minute, starting an hour later every day. These still images, shown non-stop on three planes, have an almost hypnotic effect. With ‘Zeeland Soil’, Jos de Putter returns to the area in Zeeuws-Vlaanderen he knows so well, 20 years after his documentary ‘Het is een schone dag geweest’ (‘It has been a beautiful day’).
Developed in collaboration with artist Harm van den Berg
Commissioned and acquired by Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg
Landscapes / Landschappen
Jos de Putter about Landscapes:
"I am interested in presenting images that are fragile, or on the verge of disappearing. In the video-installation LANDSCAPES, I try to capture the look of people who have worked the land all of their lives: farmers and labourers stare into the camera, straight at us, the fields in a shimmering background.
Usually, we, the public, are the spectator in a museum, when we look at what is in front of us. In this video-installation, I want the gaze to be reciprocal; the public is watching, but simultaneously has the feeling of being watched. In this way, I want to evoke the experience of a special meeting."
Developed in collaboration with artist Harm van den Berg
Commissioned and acquired by Zeeuws Museum, Middelburg
Year: 2005
Format: 35 mm
Runtime: 7 min
In PASSERS-BY the viewer becomes aware of fragments of conversations in a variety of bus shelters in the deserted landscape of the Dutch province of Zeeland.The conversations seem to have been left behind after the travellers have moved on and the bus shelters store tales about memories, love and departure.
Year: 2014
Format: HD video
Runtime: 16 min
The Shot is primarily based on an experience. We took our oldest daughter to a fairy-tale park at the age of 6. She knew she was going to ‘meet’ Snowwhite. She ran up the little hill, towards the little house where Snowwhite lay asleep. I will never forget the look in her eyes, the shattered myth, when she asked us: ‘is that Snowwhite?’ To me, it was a very profound moment, the first realisation of a gap between image and reality.
From that moment on, I knew I wanted to capture something similar in the eyes, the face of my youngest daughter. Of course, I knew Herz Frank’s Ten minutes older, and I did not want to copy, but the idea of watching the process of a face changing while looking at a film was for me the beginning of The Shot. Cameraman Jean Counet came with a technique through which it was possible to show the eyes looking directly into the camera, which increases the intimacy of what we see.
My daughter, 8 years old, is watching Bambi for the first time in her life. The Shot leads us towards the moment where Bambi’s mother is shot and my daughter realizes that there is an end to eternity.
Camera: Jean Counet
