Sophie Leyendecker

Floating through every-day-life, through spaces both private and public. Looking for what might just become home, I am catching my gaze out of my window onto the passing shadows, at crashing waves in the middle of the night, at a lost vocabulary list, at initials scratched into rocks.

Too optimistic to leave encounters untouched, unturned, undocumented.

So between between dem Rheinland and het Rijnland, I carry my camera whereever I go, relying on Chance to tap me on the shoulder. And glimpses piece each other together, becoming essays of what was graspable.

GRADUATION PROJECT

The sky is grey, wrapped in a blanket of clouds.

As we step out the door, it is raining softly.

We match our pace to the pace of the river,

zoom into the bigger picture – to catch a glimpse at the water.

Because floating in this water, and I can’t seem to grasp it

– is what I recognize in the arms of het Rijnland,

from the embrace of the stream I know from dem Rheinland.

The landscape is vast, yet we live shoulder to shoulder.

And since its always been that way – space is made for change.

Still, we tell each other

that the water of our river will always keep flowing.

In remembering little conversations with Opa,

I rediscovered my optimism.

'Et es wie et es. Et kütt wie et kütt. Et hätt noch emmer joot jejange.'

– Et rheinisch Jrundjesetz

Rhenania is an essay, picturing the gaze of our companion – the Rhine.

What he remembers, what he can see, what he imagines.