At a large Hieronymus Bosch exhibition in Rotterdam in 2001, I saw the painting St. Christopher, in which I was intrigued by the depiction of a hung bear – which, I later learned, is a symbol of gluttony. The video cycle Sandpit was a radical response to the torturous and often boring length of video art projects at the time, which had sprung up like mushrooms after the rain.

Inspired by the contemporary reality of music videos and the films of the Lumière brothers, which absolutely fascinated me in their succinctness, static camera, lack of editing, and raw message, I shot nine phantasmagoric video performances characterized by forceful visuals, the absence of sound, and a running time not exceeding one minute.

After a few years, the motif of the hung bear made it into one of the filmed scenes, in which the entire idea was given an almost magical dimension. After filming a scene in the forest, I went looking for a bear costume but simply couldn’t find one. In the end, I was able to borrow one – the company mascot of a large domestic company producing pâtés and canned foods.