In the installation ‘Media Vita’ (2020), 76 photo books form an associative story about transience. The books come from the collection of the artist’s deceased father. They are mainly about classic black-and-white photography from the 20th century. Walking past the open books, an associative visual story unfolds that attempts to capture a life from birth to death. From nothing to something to nothing again.

Whispers can be heard from some pages. They are audio quotes from the photographer from the book, about photography, life and death. The installation is a walk through the history of photography. World-famous photographers captured universal moments with their cameras. These iconic photos are interwoven with personal memories. Photography is closely linked to transience. It provides a snapshot of the world and shows constant change. At the same time, photography stops life and thus averts decline.

Roos van Geffen

Visual artist Roos van Geffen (1975) works with video, installation and photography. The central questions she poses in her artistic practice are: What does it mean to be human? What does it mean to live and die, to feel and be present in this world and in our bodies? She investigates different ways to reveal being human itself, in which the body (or parts of it) is the interpreter of abstract ideas. Her artistic process is autobiographical and phenomenological and begins with the investigation of her personal life experience, which she connects to larger tendencies in the final work.

Van Geffen studied scenography at the art academy in Tilburg and at the Academy of Fine Arts Maastricht.