Music at the End of the Century

20 colour photographs, 50 x 60 cm or 80 x 100 cm

Representing a noisy activity with a silent image gives an absurd opposition. I have to admit, I do like that. It’s impossible, really, but it also illustrates how impossible it is to want to convey anything and everything photographically. What the photograph shows is not vacuuming, but a frozen image of vacuuming. Peace at last! That’s why we vacuum, after all.

We want our surroundings to be pleasant, and the vacuum cleaner lets us reconquer a room. Cleanliness is ours; foreign bodies are banished. It’s a welcome opportunity to work out our aggression, to cleanse ourselves, to calm down again.