Fascinated, Paulien follows the rigid routines of the priests and nuns as they make their preparations for Mass. Pilgrims stand there and watch for a while or shuffle along, passing out of view. Slowly, the thoughts in her mind intermingle with the repetitive movements. A woman with a purple-pink backpack waves at the camera every day. A man with a beret keeps trying to grab something out of the air.

The live stream of an assistant lighting the candles every morning marks the start of Paulien’s day. Why can’t she detach herself from these people who cling wholeheartedly to the Virgin Mary? Is there something in their adoration of this absent apparition that helps her to get a grip on her girlfriend’s mystical delusions? In the hour and a half that the viewer’s gaze follows the little events around the grotto, a story about gradually letting go of a loved one takes shape.

“It all started with you lighting a candle and telling me not to disturb you.You were going to do something. The following night you did it again. Well, it started happening more often, with more and more candles. And the hours increased."

“I remember one evening...it had been silent for a while. I went in to check on you. And you had fallen asleep, so I blew out the candles. That woke you up, and you got so angry. It was as if I had ruined something. That's the impression I got. You said it, too...that I’d ruined something.”

Over Paulien Oltheten

Paulien Oltheten (Nijmegen, 1982) is a visual artist and filmmaker. She mainly focuses on the physical aspect, daily rituals and routines of people and objects. How they stand, hang, stagger, lean, push and pull in the world around them. Like a contemporary urban anthropologist, she documents such behaviors and patterns, often in a purposefully chosen location or context. She then structure and annotate her research materials to craft a narrative in the form of photography and video, notes, publications, lectures and performances.

Phantom of the Opera, The

Rupert Julian / US, 1925

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