Gijs van der Meer is a socially engaged visual artist based in Rotterdam. With a background in Visual Ethnography and Human Geography, the work's themes relate to the fields of anthropology, social sciences, sociology, architecture and urban planning. His artistic practice focuses on topics such as migration, labour and our understanding of history, including the way humans deal with their given (physical) surroundings. Specifically, he investigates how culture is an expression of the times we live in and how we express "culture" in our day to day routine: work, home chores, conversations, etc.
Do Birds Sing in Wartime? - In the short film “Do Birds Sing in Wartime?” a young woman explores the life of her grandmother through a diary written in Rotterdam, during the Second World War.
A young woman returns to the house of her grandmother to find out this past life is still living within her. Confronted with deep memories from a war long gone, she wonders through the house seeking to get to know the woman she knows but never met. What do we pass on from generation to generation?
Promised Land - Promised Land follows five American strangers recreating historical moments from the Pilgrim Fathers story: their departure from Europe, their voyage on the Mayflower, and the first Thanksgiving meal. Dressed in traditional costume, the Pilgrims discuss what it means to re-enact the past in a time when it is being re-evaluated. Interpreting this troubled story for themselves, they attempt to make meaning out of the past while reflecting on recent events, personal histories and persisting colonial legacies. Does the Pilgrim mythology have any place in modern society?
Made together with Salvador Miranda.
Collage Collage - A little film about friendship and intimacy, family ties and the idea of home in a world dominated by endless lockdowns.
Do You See Me – Do I See You - How do we shape the physical world around us? How then does this world redefine us as human beings? For Do You See Me / Do I See You, Gijs van der Meer spent three months following construction workers renovating the monumental Maastunnel in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. The result is something approaching science fiction, in which the tunnel emerges as a kind of claustrophobic dream space bringing about the pasts, presents, and futures of the men that, piece by piece and wire by wire, rework the tunnel, their bodies, and Rotterdam’s heritage as a city.
