For the peace and the fresh air
artistic research, installation — 2024
installation, video art
For the Vloed exhibition in 2024, the central question was the relationship between people and the sea. Together with Julia July van Duijn, I began an artistic investigation along the North Sea coast, not to define the sea, but to listen to how it lives within us.
My connection to this theme is rooted early. As the grandchild and child of sailors, the sea was never distant. It shaped my upbringing long before it became a subject of art. I learned to navigate not only by compass and chart, but by attention: by watching lightships, buoys, and lighthouses; by listening in fog for radio signals and signal buoys; by feeling the direction and force of currents, wind, and waves.
Navigation is a form of ritual, a quiet negotiation with uncertainty. Through constant observation, your position slowly reveals itself. Orientation is never immediate; it unfolds. At sea, place exists simultaneously in space, on the map, and within the mind.
For me, the sea’s sense of infinity lies not only in its horizon, but in its repetition: the unbroken movement of water, the breathing rhythm of waves, the wind that rarely rests. Time stretches there, dissolving into motion.
Yet together with Julia, I wanted to step away from my own familiarity and search for other human perspectives. Our work shifted from personal memory toward collective experience. We asked: how do others meet the sea?
On the coast of Katwijk aan Zee, we spoke with beach visitors about their relationship to the shoreline. As they talked, we asked them to describe their walks, the paths they follow, the turns they remember, the points where they stop or return. These spoken routes were mapped as drawings: gestures of movement translated into lines.
What emerged was not a geographical map, but an emotional one, shaped by habit, memory, longing, and pause. Each route revealed how the sea is not only a physical space, but a place people return to for peace, for breath, for orientation, much like navigation itself.
‘ I walk 2 km north from the south, to the water outlet, and then back. I pay attention to the shells, happy dogs, and I hope to see clear skies with beautiful colors. It gives me a peaceful, comfortable feeling. A new feeling in a new place. I don't go into the sea this time of year. In the summer, I went out to sea for a while in a dinghy. ’ — Beach walker in Katwijk aan Zee
From the coffee house in the south to the drainage in the north, Julia and I asked visitors to Katwijk beach about their personal connection to the sea. The answers, including the routes they walked on the beach, have been mapped and compiled into a book. The map is animated by an augmented layer of light, to follow the movements of beachgoers. The book reflects these people's personal relationship with the sea.
For the peace and the fresh air (2024)
Research, concept, motion graphics, projections: Jos Agasi
Research, concept, graphic design, print: Julia July van Duijn
Print 270 x 85 cm, video mapping, 1 channel video loop, 12.31 min
For the peace and the fresh air
artistic research, installation — 2024
installation, video art
For the Vloed exhibition in 2024, the central question was the relationship between people and the sea. Together with Julia July van Duijn, I began an artistic investigation along the North Sea coast, not to define the sea, but to listen to how it lives within us.
My connection to this theme is rooted early. As the grandchild and child of sailors, the sea was never distant. It shaped my upbringing long before it became a subject of art. I learned to navigate not only by compass and chart, but by attention: by watching lightships, buoys, and lighthouses; by listening in fog for radio signals and signal buoys; by feeling the direction and force of currents, wind, and waves.
Navigation is a form of ritual, a quiet negotiation with uncertainty. Through constant observation, your position slowly reveals itself. Orientation is never immediate; it unfolds. At sea, place exists simultaneously in space, on the map, and within the mind.
For me, the sea’s sense of infinity lies not only in its horizon, but in its repetition: the unbroken movement of water, the breathing rhythm of waves, the wind that rarely rests. Time stretches there, dissolving into motion.
Yet together with Julia, I wanted to step away from my own familiarity and search for other human perspectives. Our work shifted from personal memory toward collective experience. We asked: how do others meet the sea?
On the coast of Katwijk aan Zee, we spoke with beach visitors about their relationship to the shoreline. As they talked, we asked them to describe their walks, the paths they follow, the turns they remember, the points where they stop or return. These spoken routes were mapped as drawings: gestures of movement translated into lines.
What emerged was not a geographical map, but an emotional one, shaped by habit, memory, longing, and pause. Each route revealed how the sea is not only a physical space, but a place people return to for peace, for breath, for orientation, much like navigation itself.
‘ I walk 2 km north from the south, to the water outlet, and then back. I pay attention to the shells, happy dogs, and I hope to see clear skies with beautiful colors. It gives me a peaceful, comfortable feeling. A new feeling in a new place. I don't go into the sea this time of year. In the summer, I went out to sea for a while in a dinghy. ’ — Beach walker in Katwijk aan Zee
From the coffee house in the south to the drainage in the north, Julia and I asked visitors to Katwijk beach about their personal connection to the sea. The answers, including the routes they walked on the beach, have been mapped and compiled into a book. The map is animated by an augmented layer of light, to follow the movements of beachgoers. The book reflects these people's personal relationship with the sea.
For the peace and the fresh air (2024)
Research, concept, motion graphics, projections: Jos Agasi
Research, concept, graphic design, print: Julia July van Duijn
Print 270 x 85 cm, video mapping, 1 channel video loop, 12.31 min
