WHEN FLOWERS ARE KNEELING

Jerlyn Heinzen

24.3. - 23.4.2023


Dear S,

Today I realized that I always sit against the direction of travel in a train, looking back. Funny how this inherent tendency to look back at memories, situations, things informs your present and can so easily refrain you from moving forward, from looking into the imminent future around the corner. Frozen. With a thick layer of dust and seemingly so far away. Objects in mirror are closer than they appear.

Love,
K.

Dear E,

Today I learned a new word - solastalgia. Apparently, it’s a form of emotional and existential distress caused by environmental change. When we have extracted all there is to extract in this place we call home, when all the houses have been flooded and all the forests have burned, where will our home be then?

Love,
K.

Dear S

Today I was thinking of migratory birds, how they have an inner compass that they follow in any weather, come hell or high water. They just know where to go. Consider the word migrant. Migratory. On the move. The notion has an inherently negative overtone. Unstable. Yet the concept of migration is intrinsic to life, to its circular nature. We are all originally migratory, we are not settlers. Maybe that’s why I respond to Zygmund Bauman’s notion of liquid modernity so personally. Liquid present, where everything is on the move, not stagnant, but moving from one place to another, adapting and learning anew. Not guided by customs, traditions, codes of conduct and rules to which one could conform, which one could select as orientation points or by which one could be guided. These traditions are in short supply these days anyway. There are only followers and forgetters.

Love,
K.


Dear E

Today I dreamt of my first room. It’s only a few hours away, yet we are years apart. I never felt at home there, but then, I don’t really feel at home anywhere I go. Since I left that place, independent, yet divided and filled with aliens, I haven't really looked back. “An alien's passport is a travel document that may be issued to a person who is stateless or of undefined citizenship” Alienation can be like that, official and with a document.

Love,
K.

Dear S

Today I heard someone speak my language and I was transported. Even if i don't know it well, even if we are not friends, even if we are not really related. Even if its too hard to think of going back, you are still drawn to it. Because it seems easy. Because there's no need to explain. Because there are memories. No need for that overwhelming distance. And yet, you‘re a stranger.

Love,
K.


Text contribution for Jerlyn Heinzen’s exhibition at KRONE COURONNE