Joya: AiR / Cora Jongsma / NDL

Fragements of the dikes

“It is of the essence of life that it does not begin here or end there, or connect a point of origin with a final destination, but rather that it keeps on going, finding a way through the myriad of things that form, persist and break up in its currents. Life, in short, is a movement of opening, not of closure.”

― Tim Ingold, Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description, 2011―

‘The dikes I encountered in the gulch near my temporary dwelling place, Joya Air, have fallen into disrepair. They should hold water that brings life, but because they have fallen into disrepair they can no longer do so. In a clumsy attempt I tried to repair the dikes, but of course, this was an impossible task…’

‘The fragments of the dikes have become a reminder of what was so dear to me, a life that has been lost. The dikes are a reminder of what they once did; the retention of water which is the source of life. The essence of life, however, is that it flows, slips through your fingers and evaporates in the heat’.

‘Within my artistic research process, I always try to find parallels between making felt and land cultivation. Inspired by the traces in the surface of land, cultivation and the entanglement of humans and soil, I keep my artistic work going. Now, during this residency in the mountains of Andalusia, I made the loss of my dear husband visible and tangible in my artistic work’.

Cora Jongsma

Cora Jongsma is currently working as lecturer-researcher Arts & Sustainability at the Hanze University of applied sciences in Groningen.