‘De Mijmering’ by Valeer Verbeken is a perfect placard for our work on dementia
Over the past few months, our dementia experts have been looking for a fitting image that represents their work with dementia. When Natasja Willemarck, one of our dementia experts, visited an art exhibition a few weeks ago, she was immediately struck by the simple yet multilayered complexity of Valeer Verbeken's paintings. Together with the painter's son, Pierre Verbeken, we decided to use the ‘De Mijmering’ artwork (title variously interpreted as lost in musings, daydreams or reverie) for our work with dementia. We are very thankful that Pierre has made his father's artwork available to us for the work we do regarding dementia care at our hospital.
Are you interested in the meaning behind this work of art? You may read more under the photo and watch the video of Erik Robert (Department Head for Speech Therapy) talking about this work of art.
On the left side:
An old woman gazes outside, enjoying the setting sun. She may be thinking about her carefree childhood days. She is overcome by a wistful feeling, perhaps homesickness, perhaps quiet yearning. Maybe she feels happy remembering beautiful memories, and maybe these are reflected in the form of teardrops in the window pane.
On the right side:
A peeling wall that becomes darker and darker. Loneliness creeps in. Replacing the here and now. Slow-passing hours that gnaw away at her memory. Day turns into night. And everything she held dear begins to slowly disappear...
