This work is ongoing and will be presented in May.
Commissioned by Het Douane Laboratorium Amsterdam, in collaboration with Yana Khazanovich.

I'm working on a short film that explores the history and mystique of Het Douane Laboratorium in Amsterdam. The Douane (the Dutch customs) is one of the oldest Dutch national services originating from 1597 to raise taxes to help finance the Eighty Years' War (1586-1648). In order to research exactly what kind of substances were shipped across the Dutch border the Douane has had its own laboratory since 1880.

In the lab imported objects are subjected to scientific demolition; they're crushed, cut, separated, ground up and dissolved to be analyzed on a molecular level. What is stuff made up of?

The work features extensive photogrammetry scans of the entire lab in order to reconstruct the space to include its history, mystery and magic. The film will chronicle the origin of all matter through the destruction of personal objects in the lab.‍