The World as a Collection (2006)

Directed by: Koert Davidse | 12 minutes | documentary

Collectors. Aren’t they the kind of weirdos who hide in dark attic rooms all day admiring their stamp collection? Or those overweight people in too small houses, crammed with pink porcelain vases, with a gold rim? In fact, we are all collectors. Who doesn’t have a pantry full of food, a closet of clothes half of which we no longer wear, or an attic full of junk? A Savings Account, also a form of collecting. And how many CDs do you have on your iPod? According to Erik, collecting is the beginning of our civilization and he takes it very seriously. He works in a museum, the symbol of the human urge to collect and is well-read (something like that: books). Erik is very aware of his urge to collect and its compulsive side. “Collecting is controlling existential anxiety.” We collect because we think we need it to survive. To ensure the continuation of the species, for difficult times. But also: because we can’t handle the idea of ​​chaos that is life. We have to check them, sort them out, so as not to screw them up. When Erik comes home in the evening after work, he starts cutting and pasting his pictures. Nice collections, for example: all photos in which people kiss each other, or in which people smoke a cigarette or all variations on the two fingers touching each other from Michelangelo’s ‘The Creation of Adam’. With taste Davidse presents us with a documentary that has the length and content of a TV report, but which, with a pleasant editing, high image quality and beautifully constructed pictures, is absolutely cinema-worthy.