Jeanine Schreurs – Better nouveau than never (Groucho Marx)

Do you need a boost to lift your life or your business? Or are you curious about fresh ideas? Then you have come to the right place.

My work operates at the intersection of science, art, and practical innovation. As a researcher, I explore how people can break through fixed patterns and reshape their lives in more sustainable and freer ways. I write about unconventional approaches to money and opportunities, and I founded a social enterprise to help people put such ideas into practice.

Japan plays an important role in my thinking. During several research periods in Kyoto — including in 2014, 2020, and 2025 — I became fascinated by the tension between tatemae (the public façade) and honne (one’s inner voice and genuine feelings).

In my current research I combine interviews with an art-based research method: my collages from the series Japan through Squinted Eyes serve as visual entry points for conversations about people’s personal experiences with social expectations and inner freedom.

Let yourself be inspired by my work, where research, art, and imagination come together — and feel free to get in touch.

The seed for this collage series was planted during my stay in Japan in 2020, in the midst of the coronavirus crisis. The social distance I experienced at that time felt even stronger than in previous years. One moment at the famous rock garden of Ryōanji in Kyoto left a deep impression on me. I was the only visitor. While I stood quietly observing the timeless composition of stones and gravel, a monk slowly raked the sand into its pattern — carefully, almost mechanically. We exchanged neither a glance nor a greeting.

That moment suddenly made me acutely aware of how formal social interaction in Japan can be: doing what is expected, exactly as it is expected. Personal feelings usually remain in the background.

This tension between outward form and inner feeling forms the starting point of my collages. In Japan it is often described through the concepts of tatemae (建前: the public façade) and honne (本音: one’s true feelings).

The collages play with these two worlds. Just as a sliding rice-paper door may reveal a hidden room, the images bring the public and the personal together. When this separation is briefly released, another form of beauty can emerge — more open, more human, and unexpectedly rich.

For these collages I use photographs from magazines and photo books, combined with fragments from classical Japanese prints.

EXPOSITIE Japan door de oogharen / Japan through squinted eyes / 目おほそめて