Concept and realisation
Monique Duurvoort
The Dutch flag returns regularly in Monique Duurvoort's work. Raised high, moving in the wind, it evokes ideas about national identity, territory and demarcation. A powerful and charged image, in which collective stories, history and power come together.
In her work, Monique uses the flag not to affirm identity, but to examine it. To make visible how national identity is constructed, embodied and read, and how this perception shifts depending on context, power and perspective.
Monique's practice starts from her own experience, but does not claim any universal truth. Instead, it moves within the space between personal experience and collective meaning.
Within it, the flag functions as a carrier of tension: between pride and discomfort, between recognition and alienation, between belonging and exclusion. By deploying it within her work, Monique invites reflection on what it means to embody a national identity within a reality that is fundamentally plural.
What unfolds within it is not a conclusive answer, but an open inquiry. A space in which identity is not fixed, but can be questioned, rewritten and read anew.