he people united will never be defeated
Lotte Geeven’s new video is grounded in the recent wave of pro-Palestine demonstrations in the Netherlands, especially in Maastricht. She used a thermal imaging camera to record the protests and worked with young activists from Maastricht who oppose the genocide in Gaza. The resulting visual study examines how resistance is voiced through slogans, music, speech and rhythm, and how the body becomes a tool of protest. The camera captures the intensity of the moment through the heat of the bodies. Emotions such as anger and fear, and feelings of solidarity and collective strength, appear as colour, rhythm and movement. The protest take shape as a thermal organism, where individuals coalesce with the crowd. A single repeated refrain runs throughout, ‘The people united will never be defeated’. Taken from Frederic Rzewski’s 1975 composition, it has echoed through protests worldwide for over fifty years. Combined with the thermal footage, the chant takes on a physical presence. Geeven uses Rzewski’s work as a historical reference point and questions whether music or slogans can ever bring about change. Rzewski’s answer was clear: ‘Only if you act on it’ — which is what the activists in Geeven’s video do.