Zelfvoorzienend bestaan (2026)
Full HD video, silent, 7min, loop.

‘Zelfvoorzienend bestaan’ (2026) depicts the kitchen garden of Tudor Castle in 1904, a space dedicated to growing food and sustaining the household. The film brings together garden workers, a caretaker with the family’s children, and members of the aristocratic family in a series of carefully staged tableaux vivants. Through repetitive actions such as harvesting, sorting, and processing crops, the figures inhabit a shared space in which labour, care, and representation intersect.

Rather than reconstructing a specific historical event, the film presents moments in which the past becomes tangible without unfolding into a linear narrative. Filmed from a fixed viewpoint, the scenes leave the relationships between the figures open to interpretation. The aristocratic family appears alongside the workers and other figures who sustained daily life at the castle, drawing attention to forms of labour and care that are often less visible in historical accounts. Their presence also evokes their absence today, revealing how ways of living have changed over time.

Made for Verhalendragers, an initiative by Westtoer, the film combines staged imagery with historical context. It invites viewers to look beyond the apparent stillness of the scenes and reflect on the social structures, daily routines, and relationships embedded in the garden.