The pandemic radically transformed life in Amsterdam’s Red Light District. One of the world’s busiest tourist destinations became deserted almost overnight, changing the way residents experienced the neighbourhood and opening up a different view of what it could be. The Spaces Between explores this moment of isolation, anxiety and unexpected freedom through the experiences of those who lived it.
Filmmakers Axel Schoterman, Sebastiaan Smink and Rowena Wyles used 3D scans to capture De Wallen as a physical record of a city temporarily emptied of its usual crowds. The resulting landscapes are fractured and digitally manipulated, revealing new spaces and disrupting familiar scenes, while interviews emerge through fragmented soundbites and overheard conversations. Together, the visuals and testimonies capture a neighbourhood caught between loss, relief and renewal, reflecting on how the spaces created by the pandemic changed perceptions of how we live.