Cultural identity is not linear.

The work is part of my series, where I reflect on national borders, nation and culture. The series deals with the theme of transient borders. But also with the maps that one needs in life to reach one's destination or when one has lost the way and no longer knows where to go. National borders have changed repeatedly over the centuries, whether due to wars, mass migrations, climatic changes or other causes. An old proverb of the Native Americans says: ‘The earth does not belong to man. Man belongs to the earth.’ Humans cannot own land. Human life is finite, and the land will continue to exist even after humans or entire civilisations have disappeared. All that will remain are relics in the earth, to be excavated by archaeologists. National borders are necessary for states, for governments and for economic interests. But what defines a nation, a country? What is the soul of a country? It is not the national borders or states or nations, but in my view it is the people who live there. They breathe life into the country with their existence, with what they create, what they contribute to the community and how they communicate. The culture, the craftsmanship, the cuisine, the spirituality or simply the communication. In the series ‘Quo Vadis?’ or ‘Frontiers are ephemere’, I glued old and antique maps onto wood and sawed holes in them. Behind the holes, you can see handwriting. On a second wooden panel behind it, old letters, manuscripts, excerpts from books or religious texts can be seen through the windows. They are testimonies of people. Every piece of handwriting and every text is very personal, unique and the expression of a single person. And it is precisely these people who are the essence of a country, a nation. Borders may shift, countries may be renamed, but one thing remains unchanged: the individual soul of the people who temporarily live on Earth and master their lives.