As a child I formed a deep attachment towards my favourite knuffel, who is called Knuf. When I was about seven months old my mother gifted them to me after a visit to the paediatrician and very soon thereafter Knuf and I were inseparable. We slept together, laughed together, cried together, and told each other secrets we would never tell anyone else. Till this day, Knuf sleeps in my bed every night, and very often when I need to focus my mind, I will lay them in my neck or move their fabric body through my fingers. Knuf is and will always be my most precious attachment: they are an extension of me.

 

Knuf is a two-fold project:

 
The first part concists of an essay in which I try to uncover what the nature of the symbiotic relationship between Knuf and me is. The design and materiality of Knuf, pedagogy and child analysis, intimacy, theories on play, object-relation theories, and identity, are addressed in a coming-of-age, chronological order. How does the knuffel help the child, and vice versa? Why do we need knuffels and other toys? Why, when we grow up and stop playing, is it common for the knuffel to be put away? How does the knuffel continue living on its own? Why is it important that we always keep playing? What are adult ways of play or make believe? What is the essence of the continuing relationship between the human and the knuffel? And finally, how does that feed into art?

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Secondly, there is the installation. The installation consicts of a film that plays on an old CRT-tv, in which I embody my favourite soft toy, Knuf. In this film Knuf reads a self-written story to my other soft toys. The installation around this television resembles that of the film: pillows and blankets, children's toys, and some of the soft toys as seen in the film are positioned around the TV. As such I invite the audience to partake in a childlike world, perhaps also embodying a soft toy, embarking on an adventure together.