Tidal Settlers
ongoing / in development
Tidal Settlers is a staged portrait of a group of migrants moving through an intertidal zone in a seemingly endless landscape. In a fragile balance with the rhythm of the tide, the group travels through the low water, over drying sandbanks and mud fields, in search of safety and an unknown destination. The flood structures are dismantled at low tide in order to move on. During high tide they swing in shaky constructions just above the water, at the mercy of nature. The group balances between despair and freedom, between dream and reality. They are in an in-between zone, a “neither here nor there”.
This idea is related to my earlier photographic work in which I tried to depict the depiction of migrants in the European landscape: often exposed to uncertain circumstances that can make their relationship to the world around them unreal. The Tidal Settlers also find themselves displaced in an absurd state where the perception of time and space deviates from the normal.