SCREENED As part of 'The Anthropocene Foundry' @ Torrance Art Museum, Los Angeles, USA 18.01-01.03.2025
SCREENED The Open Nights Festival vol. 9, Larissa, Greece, 17-26.10.2024
SCREENED The Anthropocene Project @ The New Museum of Networked Art, Cologne, Germany, 2024
SCREENED Mister Vorky, Ruma, Serbia, 20-23.06.2024

Synopsis
Video that revolves around the upside-down flags, the protest symbol that for the Netherlands emerged during the recent farmers’ protests. Instead of the official Red White and Blue, the colors waved in reverse order everywhere along the Dutch roads. By rotating the imagery of the protest flags 180º, the tricolor is again as we know it, the world however has been turned upside-down. It’s as if we are given a glimpse into a parallel reality where we see a familiar flag in an estranging environment.

The nitrogen crisis makes it clear that humans must find a new relationship to nature. The solution for the agricultural sector is organic farming. Thinking from within the ecosystem. More farmers, less livestock. To eventually restore biodiversity and water quality, and reduce the health risk for humans and animals. The farmer protests shows we have to think different, as well farmers as politicians and consumers.

Technical information
English title: #PeopleChurchNobility
Original title: #VolkKerkAdel
Year: 2024
Language: English
Duration: 3 min + 1 min [2 versions]
Screen format: 16:9
Resolution: 1920x1080
Fps: 25
Color: color + black and white

Maker: Roberto Voorbij
Drone Operator: Juan Ma Guzman

Background information
The nitrogen crisis, which largely coincides with these farmers' protests, was described by investigative journalist Karel Smouter as possibly foremost a communication crisis. The government is no longer able to get everyone on board regarding the urgent story of sustainability. The farmers, and also a significant part of the Dutch electorate, no longer feels represented by their government, no longer recognized or taken seriously. Everyone seems to be living more and more in their own bubble.

The video '#PeopleChurchNobility' is divided into three image sequences, under the first part we hear the protest speech of an Australian activist whose video message was broadcast during the #StemZeWeg (#VoteThemAway) protest demonstration in The Hague on March 11, 2023. Unintentionally the rotated image gets an additional association, but it above all emphasizes that this concerns a global development as well. In the second part, the sounds of meadow birds are the first to be noticed. Is it an alarming call of the birds? Or do the chiming church bells rather provide an idealized image? In the third and final part we hear 'Het Wilhelmus', the official national anthem, only in reverse, which sounds familiar and strange at the same time. The camera movement in the last shot slowly takes the viewer away from the flag, the rotation makes the Red, White and Blue appear to be raised again.

The three different sequences of this short video correspond to the meaning of the Dutch three-color. Originally, red stands for the people, white for the church and blue for the nobility. The polarization of society seems to be depicted in this way. Or does the video makes it clear that the nitrogen crisis is a cross-class crisis in which different layers of the population have to find each other again?

Image sequence 1. was filmed entirely at the Zuiderpark in The Hague during the 'Stem Ze Weg' ('Vote Them Away') demo of March 11, 2023. Sequence 2. under the smoke of Amsterdam at a farmer who wished to remain anonymous. Sequence 3. in different places in Amsterdam. My intention to capture the upside-down flags in my municipality took me to places where you wouldn't immediately expect these protest symbols. As far as the posh Amsterdam South.

After the credits there is a short sequence in which even nature turns red white blue. The setting sun gives the concept of 'Dutch skies' a completely different meaning. Is it a reference to the 'God of the Netherlands' or is it more of a hint to 'solar geoengineering?' The Pandora's Box feared by some with which the intervening man believes he can reverse climate change. Accompanied in the background by the Mr. Sandman tune from the ice cream man.