Tibor Dieters: Pol/der vriens
An increasingly uncertain and hopeless future has seen many journey online for answers. There they pass through ever-granulating political identities, into progressively isolating communities often edging towards violent radicalisation.
With the surge of fringe political identities gaining mainstream popularity in the Netherlands over the past few years, catalysed by a poorly handled global pandemic, the previously comfortable separation with the online world could no longer be invoked. The veil is ripped to shreds, finally revealing its threads have rooted deep into the cultural psyche.
Conspiracy doesn’t fester in healthy societies.
In an attempt to devirtualize the volatile undercurrent emerging around the Dutch farmers’ protests, pol/der (vriens) merges the feverish imagery formed within online communities at the political fringes with a symbol of traditional Dutch heritage — Delft Blue in the age of 4chan.
The project explores the emergence of conspiracy as collective myth-making — or, shared fictions that make themselves actual. This results in a series of internet ephemera made tangible, as to embody the unprecedented influence previously fringe online communities now have on shaping culture and politics.
