Carlijn Mens | Flee-Take Flight-and Run

Flee; escape; get away; bolt; break out; liberate; set free; let go: what remains is the memory of what was and what has been.

What is the reality of the shadow? It is there and it is not there. It has no integral substance. The enigma of the shadow lies between disappearance and appearance. I capture shadows and I draw light.

Carlijn Mens studies the balance, the half-light, between good and evil, life and death, dark and light. She uses charcoal on paper, photography and video to record her observations. In the series Preserved Places she documents from a static position the places in the countryside she wants to preserve and protect. Light and shadow are caught at high speed.

In the Flee drawings she goes a step further. She no longer appears to be standing still in the landscape, but to be running through it, to be fleeing. The images flow from memory, the shadow's mobility is imaginary.

Up to and including 24 February 2013 the GEM Museum The Hague hosts the presentation of Carlijn Mens' impressive project FAITH FEAR FACE, produced in response to her investigations into the infamous 'Dover' people-smuggling case.

In these drawings, photos and film fragments the light serves as a metaphor for the fight for survival and the struggle for a better life.

The installation is about depriving people of their liberty and also refers to man's never-ending quest for betterment.

A number of 'Stamp drawings' that refer to Faith Fear Face will also be on show in the exhibition at Borzo.