Lasting things

Objects are never just things. A photo, a key, or a notebook carries memories, loss, and hope that often cannot be captured in words., 2025

Objects are never just things. A photo, a key, or a notebook carries memories, loss, and hope
that often cannot be captured in words.

With Lasting Things, I want to show that an object is never silent. I want to bring life back into what we consider lifeless. An object becomes a carrier of a person, a past, and a story. In my imagination, there is room for everything — for people and for things. My imaginative world has no boundaries.

In these photos, you see a boat on the border between Turkey and Greece. That boat represents a new beginning. But the same sea is a grave for many others. In a single image, hope and loss exist
side by side.

Borders feel like artificial lines to me. But for others, those lines determine whether a life can continue — or ends. Whether a bag remains filled with dreams or with memories.

Lasting Things is a travelling exhibition that makes these quiet stories visible — the lives that continue to exist within objects.

Team

Concept and direction

Handan Tufan

Miniatures and set design

Nasma Al-Shutfa

Cinematographer and editor

Iztokk

Sound design

Suzan van Eck

Voice-over

Habib Rezai-De Keizer

Translation

Ainaz Moghaddam, Habib Rezai-De Keizer

Producer

Milena Mulders

Consultant

Vincent Fitz-Jim

The voice-over was provided by Habib Rezai-De Keizer, based on Haroon's story, which was recorded and filmed by Handan Tufan.

Special thanks to Haroon.