Ramallah

Ramallah (2009) is akey work in Berend Strik's Thixotropy series, created during his travelsto East Jerusalem and the West Bank. The city — de facto administrative capitalof the Palestinian Authority — serves as both subject and symbol ofdisplacement and unresolved conflict.

Strik's Thixotropy series is unified by hisphilosophical approach to photography: "A photo cannot freeze time. Photosare imaginary, because what you see in a photo is no longer the same the momentyou look at the photo. For me, photos are unfinished, open, incomplete."This belief drives him to intervene in photographs, adding textile layers thattransform fixed images into fluid, multi-layered compositions.

In Ramallah, as with all works in the series,Strik photographs everyday scenes — domestic spaces, architectural details —and enhances them with tulle, velvet, and colored threads. These interventionsreveal new layers of meaning, creating what the artist calls an"intermediate space" for memory and association.

The work was exhibited at Galerie Fons Weltersalongside Israel House, Palestinian House, and Arafat. Theexhibition was reviewed by NRC Handelsblad, which praised works where "theadditions are so subtle you barely notice them" — the highest complimentfor Strik's non-intrusive yet deeply transformative interventions.

Private collection

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