How do you experience the corona pandemic in a country where you have only lived for 5 years? Together we searched for a way to visualize Mohannad’s experience of the lockdown. Mohannad, born and raised in Syria, has been living in the Netherlands for five years. He got to know the country more and more, but Corona brought this to a halt. This has a big impact on his life. In many ways, it feels like the time is standing still. In conversations, we reflect together on the things he is now missing. Gaining experience by socializing with others, and thus getting to know the language and culture better. And achieving goals, such as traveling and finding a partner. These elements have been incorporated in this triptych. We have used our different languages for this. Mohannad speaks Arabic, and Anna speaks, as a maker, in ‘images’. The languages come together to tell a story.

The work includes photos that show our collaboration in the most direct way. Because we could not work together physically, we developed our own way of ‘remote teamwork’. The images show how Mohannad gives instructions to Anna via Teams and Whatsapp to paint the Arabic words.