Opdrift – Oerol – 2008
Metal silhouettes, with ‘wise-sayings’ about time, moved slowly from east to west along the shore of the North Sea of Terschelling during the 10-day Oerol Festival in 2008. The three hundred silhouettes were walking backwards moved by the public, as we move towards the future. A total of six kilometers, times three hundred silhouettes is a total of eighteen hundred kilometer of walking. This was accompanied with movement-theater and live music. Movement-theater stands at the edge of daily reality, is alienating, yet informal and seemingly accidental, allowing visitors becoming actors. The Opdrift project was about ‘postponed meetings’ that visualizes time. It is about the tension that arises when you make an appointment in time, since appointments make time experienceable.
Opdrift also reflects the wonder of time, such as losing yourself through time by active involvement. A chain letter email was distributed asking the public to contribute a ‘wise-saying’ in ten words or less, along with a maximum hundred-word explanation. The ‘wise-sayings’ were collected in the book Opdrift, with an introduction that reveals every aspect of time, by Wilbert Cornellisen a poet and essayist. He illustrates in this all aspects of time.
A film-report was made of the entire process and the journey along the coast. After Oerol, the silhouettes visited two other locations of the Netherlands. Upon completion of the project the silhouettes were delivered to their new owners who made this project possible through their purchases.