The movements of the flood line during seven days, presented in a loop. The video Il fait dimanche sur la mer (2009) of the Belgian artist Lili Dujourie (1941) is just that. Filmed at location in Ostend, Belgium, it deals with the intertwining between nature and culture, and the ability of our mind to symbolise and thus allowing us to see things differently. What does the image tell and what does it hide? A necessary question in this work and many of the works of Dujourie. She derived the title of her video from a poem of the Belgian poet Emile Verhaeren (1855-1916), Vers la mer:

Le vent futile et pur n’est que baisers;
 

Et les écumes,
 

Qui doucement échouent
 

Contre les proues,
 

Ne sont que plumes;
 

Il fait dimanche sur la mer!

A certain atmosphere of melancholy is present in the work of Dujourie, she shows feelings of loss and longing. Indoor locations, broken image areas and titles often emphasizing that something is being withheld, stimulate introspection in the viewer. The artistic production of Dujourie can be seen as a dialogue with loss from which life draws its strength and dynamism. Her videos are an important part of a larger artistic story in which the power of silence and subtle gesture imply a refusal to show the world as the time would like it (the passing and weight of time). ‘The futile and pure wind is just kisses; the foam that gently lands against the bows is just feathers; it is Sunday on the sea!’ A poetic observation of the passing of time at sea.