«Home is the one place in all this world where hearts are sure of each other. It is the place of confidence.
It is the place where we tear off that mask of guarded and suspicious coldness which the world forces us to wear in self-defense, and where we pour out the unreserved communications of full and confiding hearts.
It is the spot where expressions of tenderness gush out without any sensation of awkwardness and without any dread of ridicule.»
The words by Frederick Robertson provide a definition of that comes closest to my concept of home.
In my life I have changed a few countries and many cities.
This gave me the opportunity to continuously explore the meaning of home.
It was in The Netherlands that I was able to express in pictures what Robertson explained in words.
When I first arrived in Utrecht, I was fascinated by the fact that the Dutch often don’t have curtains behind their large windows facing the streets: they fearlessly show their private life and the relationship they have with living spaces.
There are several explanations for the habit, for one, it might very well be a product of the deeply embedded Calvinist philosophy in Dutch society: a culture where an honest citizen has nothing to hide,a portrait of decency.
At night, when the sun goes down and darkness comes, these windows light up and illuminate the whole street: you find glimpses of life that flows slowly at every corner, scenes of life as familiar as it is unknown, that ends precisely at the distinctive border between house and street, between private and public space.
After the glimpse you catch, it’s up to your imagination. And even in the worst evenings these glimpses of other people’s lives give me the feeling of being safe, because everything seems to flow as it should, because everything seems to be in its place, including me .
This project is a tribute to this sensation, which still makes me feel at home, even if in a foreign land.
