Chris Teerink - ET IN ARCADIA EGO 
 
Forever is a long time. It stretches beyond the horizon of our perception and understanding. The time and space beyond that horizon should for us be a forbidden zone. Something we should not dare to touch or enter. But it’s not. There is not a single place on earth where the sacredness of that zone has not been violated.  
 
Et in Arcadia ego is a painting by Nicolas Poussin (1594–1665), the leading painter of the classical French Baroque style. It depicts a pastoral scene with idealized shepherds from classical antiquity, and a woman, possibly a shepherdess, gathered around an austere tomb that includes the Latin inscription "Et in Arcadia ego", which is translated to "Even in Arcadia, there am I" or "I too was in Arcadia", reminding the viewer that even in the blissful landscape of Arcadia, death still exists. 
 
The invisible death that exists in our present day landscapes is one of our own making. And it will be there forever. It has simple chemical formulas like C2F15H2O. We know them as Forever Chemicals. 
 
For decades it was known that these chemicals were highly toxic. Yet the companies that produced them withheld the public from that information and kept dumping it in the environment.  
 
We can blame those companies and the individuals responsible for these decisions. But they are part of a system we are all part of.  
 
ET IN ARCADIA EGO is a research project that aims to go beyond the issue of crime and punishment and asks the question of what position we ourselves take in this regard. 
 
NDSM-plein 41, Kunststad (1st floor)