Lieke van Beek

Rarely anyone ever gets to see the witch’s whimsical burrow buried deep in the woods. When a lost villager stumbles upon the place and sees all sorts of oddities and machines and instruments of at least a century old growing out of a tree, they wonder whether they’ve just missed a theater performance, or if this is just how the witch lives. Sometimes someone asks, but in response they get the question returned, as if she wants you to wonder how close reality and performance are related in daily life and whether it’s possible to create your own reality once you start to perceive the world and make choices responding to these observations.

Still the villagers ran around confused, so one day the witch walked uptown and climbed in the old pine tree marking the middle of the square. Many villagers gathered around, watching as she unrolled a scroll and started reciting exactly this story.

After she disappeared into the woods again, she hoped the people would wonder about her last sentence a little longer; remember who you are and stay true to yourself.