Monitoring the Dordtselaan for Maximum Peace of Mind

Daily life in the Dordtselaan, one of the so-called ‘hotspots’ of Rotterdam. A ‘hotspot’ is a location in the city where drastic measures are taken to curb street criminality, ghetto forming and illegal immigration. One of these measures is the temporary suspension of constitutional citizens rights, authorizing police to shut off whole streets and perform body searches on all passers-by, without having to go through the usual legal procedures.

Monitoring the Dordtselaan for Maximum Peace of Mind is a voyeuristic sequence of observations from the bedroom window, made over a period of a year. At first sight it seems to take a purely documentary approach, but there are subtle hints of manipulation that draw into question the objectivity of the observations and, ultimately, the position of the viewer.