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The project frames a reflection on the theme of “softness” (standing for kindness, openness), not as consolation, but as a critical position articulated in response to current and general contemporary conditions of uncertainty. The response is an ironic game of play with concepts and forms that play with double layers of meanings, that try to depict a human’s major feelings and contradictions. 

For Job Smeets, softness is not opposed to hardness, but it operates alongside it. It is not a retreat from reality, but a way of negotiating it. In this collection, irony sits at the core, allowing contradiction to remain visible and tension to be held. Rather than offering comfort, the pieces of work articulate a measured optimism grounded in conviction: a belief in humour and tenderness as deliberate positions to experience the world.