A changing picture.

How do I watch a group of people whose information I only have through television or from the newspaper? A group of people have many personal stories. I noticed that again when I got to know the people of that group personally. My picture changed from one picture into many pictures.

A few years ago I went to volunteer in a refugees tent camp in my hometown. People stayed there from Syria, Eritrea and Afghanistan. There were many volunteers who offered cookies and cakes every time and we started teaching Dutch language lessons. We arrived every time with baskets full of objects, whose names we thought it was important for them to know the Dutch names. Once a Syrian man I was teaching asked me to stay when the others went to a concert. He wanted to tell me something. I was shown a photo on his phone of a bomb strike near the house he had lived in Syri?. Suddenly I was placed in a very different reality! He told me that his wife still lived there with relatives. He hadn't dared take her on his flight, because it was so dangerous. He spoke of homesickness and fear for the future. I often think about this shocking event and every time it still motioned me very much and I realize that people who flee from Ukraine also experience terrible events of fear and despair.

I was going to translate my changing image in a visual way with the help of mirrors and I made surprising discoveries!

Margriet van Engelen