Wietske de Klerk
Wietske de Klerk graduated in 2012 from the Art academy St.Joost in Breda. In her graduation film Continuüm she concentrated her research work on the theme of the film, family, acting work and the architecture of the location. Especially this last element, architecture, is used on a metaphorical level querying the medium of film. Both architecture and the notion of the family are two concepts which are constantly appearing during and before the two years of research at the Master’s Program. De Klerk decided to connect her fascination of the cinematic space and family dynamics and transformed her research into: The family as a mise-en-scène.
Selected works
– Love and Engineering (interactive film, VPRO)
– Parre (short fiction, film by the sea&Columnfilm)
Working experience
– Various assistant directorships
– Corporate film and music video production
– Teaching and coaching (s.a. Eye Institute, Academy of Art and Design St. Joost, and Cavak Film Foundation)
Nominations and Awards
– Breda Art Award
– Nominated St. Joost Penning, VERS awards 2012 & 2013, nominated for best European online storytelling
– Graduation film Continuüm is archived in EYE film collection
The family as a mise-en-scène
Coloured tours
DAS Viewing Space
I perceive the family as a subject and a place to play. I observe it from a different angle every time. A journey through various experiments, which create different understandings and encounters with the family.
The quiet event
video installation
Three different storylines with three family members during one event. The constellation of the points of view during the event and its simultaneousness are for me, the core of this project. I want to reconstruct the mise-en-scène of this event from the different points of view, using the tools I have researched over the last two years. Reframing by projecting and using the space to spatially reconstruct the event, which will create new mise-en-scènes.
Artist statement
For me, the family is a dynamic system. As is suggested in the ideas of Family as a System, I conceive of the family as a network of power relations, which defines itself and redefines itself over and over each time any member introduces new thoughts. These mechanisms of interaction are present yet, to most of us, virtually invisible. I am fascinated by the dissonant fact that the family appears to be a self-reconstituting and adaptable apparatus, yet is governed by strict social roles and rules. The aim of my work is to demonstrate the nature of this familial apparatus.
Regarding the mechanisms through which families interact, spatiality plays an important role in both my work and my working methodology. When I start writing a scene, I begin by mapping it out in space. Through researching the needs and thoughts of a character, new movements and positions are defined in relation to cinematic space. By showing the constellation of characters, one shows the mise-en-scène of the family.
In the filmmaking process, mise-en-scène is often undertaken as a primarily technical step. But for me, exploring the dynamics of the family by means of constructing and reflecting upon their physical placement in a scene has always been a vital and essential working method, through which I question my own ideas.
