“Contingency Plan” is a video art piece that reinterprets Dirck van Santvoort’s portrait of Agatha Geelvinck, transforming it into a new narrative. The young woman portrayed, born into a wealthy family in Amsterdam and deceased only a year after her marriage, is reborn here in a different time and place — a Caribbean island. In this reinterpretation, Agatha becomes a courageous woman embarking on a journey of freedom and self-discovery.
This story resonates deeply with me as a resident of Cuba, an almost surreal island where migration, silence, frustration, sadness, and disillusionment are constantly present due to political circumstances.
Work process and use of AI: My creative process begins with a base illustration that incorporates the original portrait, serving as the starting point to build my visual storytelling. From this first image, I create three additional illustrations with variations, which I then use to generate video sequences through VEO 3.1, an artificial intelligence tool. Afterwards, I handle the post-processing and editing in After Effects, combining all sequences into a single video that tells the story. Finally, I add sound design and textual elements that complete the poetic atmosphere of the piece.
Contingency plan
Agatha was born on a sad island
where everyone leaves.
And now she writes a goodbye
as she climbs aboard her boat.
She fills it with her memories
and raises the anchor.
She will not live in silence,
she will not accept her fate
with head bowed low.
She will not stay in the darkness,
chasing after hope.
Agatha found love,
the freedom she lacks.
Toward colder seas
she steers her soul.
