In the summer of 2021, Caroline Pauwels will once again enter her North Sea every morning. She in clogs and in a bathrobe she walks on the Ostend dam and on the beach to the surf, and from there into the water and into the day. The summer of 2021 was fickle, as was the North Sea. In the opening images of the documentary Canvas, we see a fragile body becoming the playful toy of dark, high waves. She swims with her head above the water, like rescuers. Everything, everyone, remains seen. Nobody will drown near her.
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“I love that we still have four seasons,” says Caroline Pauwels. “And I like it when they’re done.” To love things in all their inevitability, as if they liked themselves so …
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