Exclusively for De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal Folkert de Jong built the domain of The Ilemauzer: the dark, deranged world of a man whose name was borrowed from a seventeenth century document about witch hunting.
Photo(s): Kees Brandenburg
Folkert de Jong is fascinated by people who are consumed by obsession. His work traces the thoughts and lives of among others: witch hunters; religious maniacs; political fanatics; militarists; and also serial killers. He investigates and reconstructs the manner in which they mark their environment with language, signs, symbols and rituals. Immersing himself in the thoughts and motives of both existing and fictitious figures, De Jong becomes part of the bizarre world he creates.
In De Kabinetten van De Vleeshal De Jong reconstructed the room where he had worked on the The Ilemauzer. This space formed the entrance to the domain of his fictitious, insane character The Ilemauzer. The trek visitors made to the interior of this domain was reminiscent of the journey in Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, and of Clarice Starling’s hunt for serial killer Buffalo Bill in The Silence of the Lambs.
exhibitions
tags: folkert de jong
