WE - THE REST OF US

Looking for the ideal community.

The project is based on a text from the Lettre International 02/2012:

‘I LIKE IT BEST WHEN EVERYONE IS ALLOCATED TO THE RIGHT PLACE, THE MAD PEOPLE IN THE MAD HOUSE, THE MURDERERS IN THE JAIL, AND WE – THE REST OF US AT HOME, SO THAT WE CAN GAZE AT IT ALL FROM OUR ARMCHAIRS OVER A CUP OF COFFEE.’
– BELTEMPO

Inspired by Beltempo’s text I initiated several visits to housing communities, searching for the relationship between social connectivity and rooms for inhabitation. I photograph people who – through spatial circumstances – are externally perceived as a group. Here I meet different communities of similar fate self-organised and temporary communities. WE – THE REST OF US is a project about perception and formation of communities within our society, about the development of a WE sentiment, about social cohesion as well as exclusion, loneliness, spatial closeness, isolation, visibility and representation. At every specific location I always ask the residents to open their front doors and to position themselves in their front rooms. I examine the relationship between the inside view on different communities, their spatial condition and solidarity. Both: the reflection on what we see and the act of looking as a process shaped by culture plays an important role in my work. The following questions emerge: At what point does one develop a sense of community based on spatial proximity? Does this sense of belonging become heightened by an external threat? What are the elements required for a community to establish a sense of ‘us’?

I document everyday situations. My pictures are an attempt to stage a scene as not staged. The frame acts as a border that leads into the worlds of others which, however can not be crossed.