MURMURATIONS AT ROTTERDAM PHOTO FESTIVAL 2022

[NL] Op het Rotterdam Photo Festival van 18 tot 22 mei 2022 zal mijn beeld Murmuration X worden tentoongesteld. Het is onderdeel van de Human Blue Print tentoonstelling en zal buiten te zien zijn op een paneel van 2,5 bij 2,5 meter, de honderdduizenden spreeuwen kun je dus goed bekijken.

Ik ben de jury dankbaar voor de selectie: Erik Vroons, Marcel Kollen en Vanya Pieters

Onderaan staat mijn tekst over het thema Human Blue Print, waarin Rotterdam Photo de boeiende filosoof over ecologie Timothy Morton betrekt. Laten we ruimte maken voor een meer niet-menselijke aarde.

[EN] At the Rotterdam Photo Festival 2022 my image Murmuration X will be exhibited outside on a 2,5 x 2,5 m panel, so you can really see all the hunderds of thousands of starlings. It is part of the Human Blue Print exhibit.

Iā€™m grateful for the selection by the jury: Erik Vroons, Marcel Kollen en Vanya Pieters

Below is my reflection on the theme HUMAN BLUEPRINT, Rotterdam Photo has used the fascinating work on ecology by philosopher Timothy Morton for this theme. Let us all leave behind a more non-human planet.

A large swarm of one million starlings flit rhythmically across an Yves Klein blue sky, silhouetted like tiny black specks in musical motion, in my new Murmurations series. The starlings fly in swooping, intricately coordinated patterns and form abstract landscapes in the sky in a sublime musical rhythm. To emphasize Tim Mortons idea that nature is an anthropocentrically scaled concept, I selected this image of nature that instigates people to see a face in a flock of birds. This phenomenon called face pareidolia is a prime example of how we perceive the planet as exclusively human: we process this fake face using the same visual mechanism of the brain that we do for real ones. Since 1990 there is a 40% loss of the number of starlings due to the impact our species has on PLANET HUMAN. With this beautiful explosion of biodiversity of the starlings I want to entice people to leave behind a great, non-human planet.

More information: Rotterdam Photo