vroeger was je anders :$ wjnmk - 2025

In vroeger was je anders :$ wjnmk, memories, nostalgia, love, and trauma converge in an immersive installation. The title refers to “wjnmk,” an abbreviation of the Dutch phrase wil je nooit meer kwijt, meaning “never want to lose you.” The expression became popular during the MSN Messenger era, when emotions were condensed into short digital codes. By reintroducing this early internet language, the work bridges private memory and collective nostalgia, recalling a time when vulnerability was both intimate and publicly shared online.

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The installation consists of multiple tubes containing stories and fragments of memory. These structures function as vessels that preserve personal experiences while simultaneously exposing their emotional weight. Water operates as a central metaphor throughout the work. It symbolises immersion and transformation, but also the sensation of drowning in one’s own history. Angel Rose refers to certain periods of her life as “eras of drowning,” moments in which memory becomes overwhelming rather than comforting. Yet despite this weight, the desire to hold on remains. The past is not something to be discarded, even when it is painful.

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Inspired in part by the song Blub, ik ben een vis by K3, the installation reflects on displacement and identity. The image of a fish lost in water becomes a metaphor for searching for a former version of oneself. As human beings, we constantly evolve. We gain knowledge, awareness, and resilience, yet sometimes long for the simplicity or innocence of who we once were. The work acknowledges this tension without romanticising the past.