For Zelf in een Doosje (Self in a Small Box), six of the sculptures of Zelf were lent to elderly inhabitants of the Frisian villages Koarnjum and Jelsum. The film captures their first encounters with the objects as well as the connection they developed to them over time. What place did the objects take in their daily routines, amongst their other belongings? How did the objects gain meaning in the context of personal stories, both to the residents and to an audience watching the footage? Out of this collaborative research, a new artwork emerged: a film of 10 minutes, in which people and objects give meaning to each other.

Due to the Covid-19 regulations, this work premiered eight times, for each participant separately, on March 27, 2021, at theatre De Wier in Cornjum (NL). After that it was available for online viewing for five weeks. What you see here is the trailer.

_{I’m so grateful for the patience and openness of participants Janny van der Mei, Pieter van der Werff, Janke Terpstra, Josephine Land-Cohen, Sjieuwke van Dijk, Tine Sinnema, Stien Beckers, and Anneke Schotanus-Hoitsma. Producing this film would not have been possible without the enthusiasm and help of Yvon Wolfslag and Pieter van der Werff, community organizers in Koarnjum and Jelsum. Shout out to Boetie Zijlstra, my super intern at the time. The double bass you hear in the film is played by Harm Wijntjes. Video editing expert Jasper van den Brink pulled me through the hardest parts of the editing phase, and the finishing touches of Jaap Sijben polished the sound to perfection. The translation was done by Rosie Haward. Special thanks to Tamara Schoppert, Jantien Koenders, and Lorenzo Schmidt for their valuable feedback, and Bob de Boer and Wieke de Haan for their help at theatre De Wier.} 

_{This work was made possible with the generous support of Over de Drempel and the Mondriaan Fund.}