Interlude: A Temporary Interruption in the Ordinary World

In 2013 Annegien van Doorn lived and worked for two months in a former pumping station, a residency of the Mondriaan Funds in The Netherlands. The pumping station is situated in the dunes and is surrounded by typical Dutch countryside. “At first, a feeling of freedom overwhelmed me. The physical space in and around the Pompgemaal created a lot of space in my head. Suddenly there was so much time and so much was possible that I almost drowned in my own ideas. At the same time, living in a village near the coast unexpectedly brought back many memories of my childhood in Zeeland. Nothing ever happened in the village where I grew up, but there was plenty of space for us to create your own worlds. I realised that it was there that I had learned to work with whatever was at hand and where my fascination for rough-and-ready interventions, often created without conscious artistic intent, came from. To investigate the archetypal Dutch and familiar landscape around Den Helder, I took to wandering about the area on a daily basis. To make sense of all my thoughts, I began to apply strict rules to my actions and in this way created my own playground. I analysed everyday situations I encountered and collected materials and objects that caught my attention. I then relocated them to engender a new perception of the world. That’s how new and out-of-the-ordinary realities arose in Den Helder, framed and fixed in time and space.”