When you see Carlijn Kingma’s impressive artwork The Waterworks of Money, that efficiently illustrates the way the financial sector runs through everyday life, it’s hard to imagine how one would even begin creating something so highly detailed and intricate. But patience seems to be the keyword of this documentary portrait that follows Kingma from the inception of The Waterworks of Money to its display at the Biennale in Venice. Filmmaker Ariane Greep shows a master at work, slowly but surely refining her work into the masterpiece it became.
De wereld van Carlijn explores the journalistic efforts that formed the input for Kingma’s map of the modern world. Her piece is inspired by elaborate research, conducted alongside professor Martijn Jeroen van der Linden and investigative journalist Thomas Bollen. Kingma’s accumulated knowledge on the complicated subject matter allows for fascinating (and unexpectedly funny) interludes, for example when she points out the factual errors in an explanation of the banking system, given by the CEO of a major bank… It goes to show that great art can lead the way in shaping how we see the world.