still not at ease
single channel HD video, colour, stereo sound
13,33 min
2012
Still not at ease is an artistic reflection upon how South Africa's apartheid past still resonates in and haunts its present, especially after many of the stories of violence, degradation and marginalization became widely known during the two years, 1996 to 1998, that the Truth and Reconciliation Commission was active in South Africa.
It uses sound fragments from diverse testimonies from victims and perpetrators given to the TRC, focusing on what Westerveld calls the 'pre-event' of the testimonies, the part of a testimony leading up to the actual atrocity, suggesting that extraordinary events came out of, interrupted and changed forever, the everyday situations of ordinary life. These selected audio files are shown together with images taken from a present-day property broker’s website. Some date-stamped, showing domestic interiors, these emphasize the ordinary, everyday often domestic situations and circumstances which preceded, as well as contained, the trauma and violence of apartheid, and continue to harbor its ghosts up to this present day.