Verduinen (“Becoming a dune”)

Instructions for trying to become a dune yourself

Feel the desire to become a dune.
Find a beach or a desert.
Find a windy day.
Lie still for a long time. It’s best if you only think about the sand, but that’s hard. You could sing songs in your head. This makes it less painful. You could bring someone with you to throw sand into the wind. This speeds up the slowness.
Give up, but not too quickly.
Try to become a dune.

About “Verduinen”

It was a beachcomber who pointed out the changing landscape on the island of Ameland to Maria Stuut. While the sand was disappearing on one side, it was increasing on the other. With her video installation “Verduinen”, the artist explores this shifting sand in her very own way: She transforms herself into a dune – she “verduins”. “People try to influence the movement of the sand, but they don’t succeed. That’s why I wanted to become a dune myself and found out: I too was trying to manipulate the sand,” says Maria Stuut about her experience. “Verduinen” is one of those artistic projects that deal intensively with the level of the more-than-human. People are not only in a relationship with other people, but also inevitably with everything non-human that surrounds them. This results in a dimension that allows people to step out of their humanity. In Maria Stuut’s installation, viewers immerse themselves in this dimension as if in a dream and experience what many may dream of: leaving the human body and becoming part of a completely different, non-human environment.

Schlossberg tunnel

This installation was realized with the kind support of AVL .