MY MUM USED TO TELL ME TO
NOT TO STEP ON GRAVES
Site-specific, salt52.135328, 4.462207, Voorschoten, 2021
Salt is associated with purity, preservation, protection but bares a negative aspect of death as well.
My dear friend's mother had studio in Voorschoten. Studio in woods, as we called it, was an antikraak, ready to be torn down. We walked around, as there was a lot of nature and interesting places to see. We came across a former graveyard.
I did research about this place, officially called Beresteyn, which history goes to year 1833. Unfortunately, I couldn't find any details regarding the graveyard, but my dear friend told me that popes were buried there as Beresteyn has been over years mostly a religious institution for boys.
I highlighted the circuit of graveyard with salt as it is associated with purity and act of preserving and protecting but also, it has aspect of death. Although, the bodies were no longer there, I couldn't step on soil because it has a knowledge of bodies that once were buried there and it reminded me how my mum used to tell me, when we were visiting cemeteries, to not to step on graves.
