Interieur van het huis van het echtpaar Jetten 1925 - 1927

Editor: Here we have a photograph entitled "Interieur van het huis van het echtpaar Jetten", taken between 1925 and 1927. The light in the room feels quite still, almost frozen in time. It gives off this very serene and composed aura, but slightly melancholic. What do you make of this image? Curator: That melancholy speaks to me, too. It feels almost like a stage set, doesn't it? There's an undeniable order, a geometry that verges on sterile, yet you can sense the ghost of lived experience clinging to the furniture. I wonder who this couple was, the Jettens? What stories did those chairs overhear? Photography freezes a moment, but a great one, like this, makes us ponder the before and after. Doesn't it make you curious about the everyday dramas, or comedies, that unfolded in this Art Deco haven? Editor: Absolutely. The fact that it's a photograph adds to that feeling, since we're distanced from an intimate moment. But, where do you see hints of the "ghost of lived experience" exactly? Curator: Well, look at the objects arranged on the tables—a book casually left open, a vase of flowers slightly off-center. It suggests someone was just there, reading or arranging things, before time stopped. I feel as if there's an intimacy suggested precisely by its absence. Perhaps a touch romantic of me? Editor: I can see what you mean; the placement looks too accidental to have been staged so deliberately. That sense of frozen time really does change the tone from just an image of furniture. I wouldn’t have picked up on that without you pointing it out. Curator: And I, in turn, see how the 'distance' afforded by the photograph itself, what at first glance seemed a barrier to feeling, actually accentuates the longing for connection to the past. That's the beauty of art, isn't it? A constant back-and-forth, where a new pair of eyes can open unexpected doorways.