Skoalleboskje
The project Skoalleboskje is about a 150 years old little forest, named Skoalleboskje, in the North of the Netherlands. The forest is barely one hectare in size. The Skoalleboskje (which literally means school forest) was an educational extension of the primary school next to it. Among other things, the children were taught about nature and preserving it. In the evening, when the children’s voices had disappeared, a whole different world came to the surface. A world not meant for human eyes and interference. In the night the forest belongs to hares, foxes, deer, badgers and other wildlife.
In my project Skoalleboskje I am exploring the parallel world of the human place versus the animal’s. During countless walks through the forest, I was wondering; what happens to this place when human is not present? I placed six wildlife camera’s that recorded during the night. I did not have any control over the shot what so ever. The only control I had was over the framing of the image. What happened inside that frame was a matter of luck. It resulted in black and white shots that I edited into a short film. The film reveals a magical world showing us the animals’ activities in their own habitat where human life seems to be non-existing. It depicts the quantity and diversity of wildlife on a very small surface. During the daytime, I took color pictures of the same place as I experienced it. In combination with the film the project depicts the duality between day and night; the human and animal world.
A few years ago, the school closed due to a lack of students. The school is now on the nomination to be demolished. It must make way for housing construction. Together with the building, this forest is threatened to disappear. Globally nature is disappearing due to human activity. While mankind thinks he owns the earth, this small forest demonstrates the opposite. Here, the concern over this “Skoalleboskje” represents a concern over nature worldwide; it makes the project more urgent than ever.
