Juul Hondius

Prisoner M and his mirror image

 

I worked for one week inside the P.I. prison in Vught, the Netherlands, the most heavily secured penitentiary facility in the country. As a maker, I was given a rare opportunity to experience life inside the prison—to observe, to research, and to meet the people who work and live there.

Inside, many things begin to feel almost normal. Daily routines settle in, conversations unfold, time passes. But every time I stepped back outside and the heavy gate closed behind me, that was the moment of realisation. In that sound, and in that separation, I began to understand what it truly means to be imprisoned.

 

Part of an assignment by the Nationaal Monument Kamp Vught, curated by Flip Bool, 2009