Graduation Work, Gerrit Rietveld Academie:

Emma van den Berg questions the personal and intimate space between a mother and her daughter. Specific moments of a single mother with her only child are documented in the film ‘Doei, Stomme Trut’ (see below) by the following and filming of Mical and Stephanie. Grown up as the only child of a single mother herself Emma van den Berg tries to capture the specific, intimate and narrow space of a symbiotic relationship, that can feel as much safe as oppressive. Next to the film ‘Doei, Stomme Trut’ the personal video installation ‘Mama’ (choreographed and facilitated by Pedro Matias) is shown of Emma van den Berg and her mother in a filmed performance. This film explores and questions the symbiotic space between a mother and her daughter. The specific personal memory of a mother brushing a child’s hair, becomes a way to research the attachment/detachment between parent and child.

By the turning of the camera, (away from her subjects and on to the film maker herself) a shift in perspective, viewing and acting takes place by replacing the tools of a documentary maker for those of the performer.