White is the first part of de KOE’s great history of the West. In White we start by looking for a new naivety, by trying to go back to the – for us, in any case – ideology-free white West of our youth. We want to see if and how long we can keep it up: the narration without hidden agenda, without political argument or the secret jargon of the art world. If we can actually still do it: blank.

A: Are you really going to play that music?

B: Yes, I’d like it to start like this.

First it’s quiet for a while…

then very softly the music starts.

A: I’m not sure.

People will think it’s irony.

B: To me it has nothing to do with irony…

to me it’s something real…

something deep…

something that goes far back.

A: They can’t know that.

B: I’ll explain it later.

A: What are you going to say?

B: I’ll say it happened when I was six years old…

and my dad had just come home from his job...

he was resting on the sofa...

and he let me lie next to him him…

and I pressed my nose into his armpit ...

On the radio this music sounds

In that moment I am safe…

and hopeful at the same time.

A: I don’t know.

B: Isn't this the kind of thing we were going to try?

If I don’t do it now

it’s never going to happen.

We’ll save the objections for part two and three of the trilogy.

A: I’m not sure if it’s going to work.

B: I promise I’ll keep a straight face.