At the end of World War II my Croatian grandparents fled from former Yugoslavia to Austria. Together with other refugees from Croatia, Slovenia and the Ukraine, they were accommodated in a Displaced Persons Lager. Only ten years later my grandparents were able to emigrate further, when the Netherlands was capable of receiving a contingent of former refugees.
I became fascinated with this history, which had influenced not only the life of my family, but also the lives of a great number of other people. I wanted to understand what it meant to have to leave your own country, your own house. I wanted to be able to feel for myself that sense of being uprooted. Forced to leave your homeland only to land in a vacuum of uncertainty.
Although it was primarily the harrowing history of these people that I had in the back of my mind, I discovered something beautiful. In old family pictures of my grandparents I saw hands being held, embraces, the search for consolation and support. By people who were brought together by fate, and who became friends and later went their own way, in search of a new home. The way in which these people held fast to one another makes visible what being displaced is. Perhaps finding comfort in one another is the only thing that you can still do, and still want to do.
When my grandfather passed away, his belongings and interior reflected very little of his Croatian background. His abandoned house felt like the end point of this history.
Although without my own personal and emotional bond this project could never have come into being, for me it is not only about this specific story. It is about a universal story which everyone can feel.
Displaced is a photo installation consisting of details of family photographs, photo's of my deceased grandfather's deserted house and archive photo's of the Displaced Persons Lager in Austria.
