Juul Hondius

> work in development

> spatial configuration of multiple video screens, synchronised across audio and image.

>made in close cooperation with Montaser Alsabe & Abed Hussein

 

The New Tidal Settlers aims to depict the human condition within the context of climate change, rising sea levels, and global displacement.

 

The images carry traces of environmental transformation and large-scale migration, presenting human movement as one of the most urgent consequences of a changing world. As a group, the characters collect materials and construct temporary structures that allow them to move through an intermediate, intertidal landscape in which they remain for extended periods of time. They exist in a state between despair and redemption, between dream and reality.

Those forced to cross Europe’s many borders in search of safety or a better future often encounter catastrophic conditions shaped by political and social systems that fail to protect them. At the same time, the work exposes the indifference and underlying racism that often determine whose lives are considered worthy of protection. Rather than explaining, it creates a sense of proximity, confronting the viewer with the uncertainty and vulnerability surrounding the characters.

 

The film’s visual language shifts between documentary realism and dreamlike estrangement, where time, movement, and direction gradually lose clarity and purpose. In landscapes shaped by ecological collapse and political division, the characters continue searching for orientation, stability, and dignity.

What remains is a question:

How does one continue when the ground beneath one’s feet is no longer stable?