‘precious people’ is based on a photo of Massimo Sestini that won the World Press Photo 2015. The image depicts a boat with refugees photographed from above. It is conceived as a tutti frutti piece, which is an imitation of reality. Making an imitation of reality today is particularly difficult, as we live in a fake news era. Therefore, the reference to true reality is gone. Of which reality can I make an imitation?People like to look at anything that is beautiful.

The refugee situation is not. Europe carries out illegal pushbacks and deprives vulnerable people of their human rights. And this happens even on the open sea.

In this boat, over 300 migrants risk their lives and those of their children to flee their unsafe homes.

Looking away from such horror is therefore an easy way out.

Tieke tries to give stories of refugees a different perspective than what we generally see and hear in the media.

The viewer is attracted by the beauty and richness of the piece, after which it is difficult to look away without consciously reflecting upon it.

There are two versions of the boat, one made of silver and one made of wood. The silver version is the setting that every person would deserve. This wooden version is the real situation. No one imagines a brilliant cut stone in a wooden setting, but in the European Union this mistake is possible. Europe keeps migrants out of its borders through illegal push backs and puts their fate in the hands of people smugglers.