St. Benedictusberg Abbey, Vaals
October 2016
Days of solitude (rhythm)
photographs, writing
After I dug a hole at the beach my work took another, more personal direction. I decided go to the monastery in Vaals designed by Dom Hans van der Laan. I stayed there for several days as part of my research and as a personal experiment. As expected, living in a monastery, with the daily schedule of monks, was in contrast with living in a city and it took some time to acclimatise.
What struck me most was a certain certainty which every monk seemed to have. A certainty which (globally) seems to be missing. Namely, living for a bigger story where one can surrender, and which gives an answer to the big and most basal question: why? This narrative seems to be missing in our contemporary western society and leaves me, at least, continually searching.