Sometimes we get all caught up in taking things for granted that maybe aren’t so evident after all. Inspired by the “loving kindness” - a term used in mindfulness practices - in this project I decided to show my gratefulness to those around me in the shape of a letter.

During the course of two weeks I decided to write a letter of appreciation for all professional one-on-one services (coach, psychologist, pharmacist). In these letters I pointed out the inevidencies about their job, amongst which always being phone calls in between free of any charge, being able to find the right questions to guide one to understand themselves better, being open on when other are on-call duty.

Seeing the faces of these professionals bright up while reading their letter of hearing that it made their entire working week has taught me how much of an impact a simple gesture can be in someone else’s life.

Dressed in a plain black T-shirt covered with labels, some more neutral like a diagnosis, others insults that got assigned to me through the years I performed a set of poems as an intervention during the Mayday Mayday festival.

With these poems I want to question the extend in which we conform to the societal norms. Not just by our liking, but compromising our human needs as well. I want to open up the dialogue between the self and the world around us. An attempt to get to (inter)personal understanding of our human experiences. Opening up discussions that potentially inspire and hopefully spark change.

This way this artwork may as well be considered a manifesto, heard as a poem, experienced as an action and seen as visual storytelling.

An autobiographical exhibition that served as my first year’s end project.

Right before the academic jury, I finally received a call from a landlord that would want to rent to me, after three years of temporary housing. In this exhibition consisting of documentary pictures combined with text show my journey from living in a caravan in a trailer park, a hostel dorm room and a homeless shelter to installing myself in my very own apartment.