Jelle Slof: Evidentie

(Excerpts from a bikeride from Nijmegen to Arnhem)

I’m now in Lent… and it’s rush hour. Kids are going to school, and parents are bringing them.  But I wasn’t planning on talking about that….
(…)
I wrote a text about the evident: what the word means, for me personally -Concentrate on the road quick – but I thought it was too short. So I’d figure I’d tell some things about it (the text).
(…)
Why evident: it’s a pompous word, one guy called Bert Treffers visited a talk show, for he had found a new Caravaggio. Well, others found a new Caravaggio, and he was the Caravaggio connoisseur, so he had the authority to tell everyone that this, in fact, was really a Caravaggio painting.
And this was a quick talk show interview, you couldn’t just throw around big words, and you couldn’t really go deep into a subject. So, the guy had to be blunt and said:
Those who criticize this work have not seen it yet – everyone who sees it will agree with me: It is evident, that this is a real Caravaggio. 
something being evident in this phrase is something being clear – but with muscle behind it, you can say it with raised hands, it IS evident. It has a different accent, you can make this said truth even heavier. The subjectivity of being clear is gone, evidence is clear for everyone.
This evidence is what persuades me while standing in front of a painting: an evident painting. A painting that has the muscle to convince me of its clearness at first glance.
I am now close to the Cinemec, one of the ugliest buildings in this route. This building sucks the energy out of you. 
Now I got to tell you: what kind of artworks are evident? I have to think about that.
(….)
I am at the football fields of Bemmel. Oh wait, they’re hockey fields. My spirits are up again.
Nepotism was another thing: pompous word for a familiarity bias. If I have to write a text about my influences all I think about is my friends. You could say Velasquez, El Greco, these are the people who influenced me. But that wouldn’t be the truth: it’s my friends who influence me. As you may have noticed there are no foreign artists on this list. I’m not a big travel guy. I talk about the works that I know and feel familiarity with.
(….)
Maybe I should include the view. So you guys have a more evident experience on this talk.

Audio titled Jelle Slof – Salon Evidentie by Mister Motley Magazine