When I drive into the old monastery village from the motorway, via the provincial road and the ferry road, I feel time slowing down. I stop in front of the entrance to a large enclosed garden and open the gate. This is where the transition takes place. Street noises are drowned out by the quiet rustling of tree leaves and birdsong. An unpaved path leads to an abandoned monastery building where my living and working space is located.

On the second floor, I design scale models of architectural interiors that take shape from the experience of slowing down. I photograph the scale models with an analogue camera. This method of working may be considered time-consuming and painstaking, but for me it is a magical time in which concentration on a small object leads to great wonder. As Blaise Pascal wrote: 'Small things pretend to be big, and big things pretend to be small.'

‍Through the window in my study, I can see the monastery garden, the treetops at eye level. At least, that was the view twenty-two years ago. Now the treetops have grown beyond the windows. The length of the trunks is difficult to estimate; they stand there like imposing columns connecting heaven and earth. The anthropologist and religious historian Mircea Eliade wrote about the concept of Axis Mundi, the world pillar. In ancient civilisations, standing still next to a tree was a ritual act in which man found his meaning within the cosmos. The vertical axis between the infinite space in the sky and the earthly living space created a spatial orientation and awareness of connection with nature. The tree embodied a sense of time as an eternal return through the changes of the seasons.

In today's civilisation, humans are expansively searching for meaning in their existence and are coming up against the limits of cosmic balance. The climate crisis is a fact, and giving space back to trees and biodiversity is of existential importance for future generations.

Every new civilisation is characterised by a change of perspective. Perhaps the Axis Mundi can provide a renewed perspective on our relationship with space and time.


‍Ingeborg Meulendijks


This text was written as part of the the project 'In Horto', presented at Odapark, Venray and Museum van Bommel van Dam, Venlo (The Netherlands) in 2022.