Matthijs's bench
In 2023, Joey Benistant received the award for best debut at the Netherlands Film Festival. The film is called Life is not Short Enough and is about the friendship between Joey and Matthijs.
The film was broadcast by BNN/VARA and can be seen on 2DOC. It has already received a number of awards: Best Debut Film (Netherlands Film Festival 2023), Best Documentary (Northern Film Festival) and Best Groningen Film. FilmHub Noord shows the film at schools in the North and plans to include the film in the national offering due to the impact the film has on the target group.
The bench from Matthijs' parental home, where Matthijs and Joey "hung out" a lot, will soon be a work of art in the Noorderplantsoen by artist David Sciarone. The film will be viewable via the QR code.
About Matthijs and his Bench
2023
The question of the film
Matthijs Kok was the joker, the philosopher of the cold ground, the word artist... An intelligent young man with an engaging
personality and a close circle of friends. He was a promising student in Groningen. And… he had disastrous psychological problems
which made him addicted to alcohol and drugs. A fatal cocktail. When he is 27, his friend Joey and his girlfriend Ksenija find him dead in his apartment. The shock that this causes to the circle of friends
gets, has a profound effect. Could they have assisted him better? Could they have prevented this?
2025
About the bench
A bench will be placed at a meaningful location in the Noorderplantsoen
placed, a replica of the IKEA bench from Matthijs's parental home. Matthijs and his friends spent a lot of time on this bench and the Noorderplantsoen was like a second living room to them. They spent a lot of time there, like so many young people. On the back of the seat of the concrete bench is the text "It is not written in stone - Matthijs Benjamin Kok". It is a characteristic statement of Matthijs when he had to change his mind again. Next to the bench is a separate object with an explanatory text and the QR codes that give visitors access to the film and the websites of aid organizations. Visitors will also be invited to share their own thoughts and experiences via social media. The
The festive inauguration of the bench will be accompanied by an open-air screening of the documentary
The artist of the Bench
David Sciarone
David Sciarone, 1992
• graduated from Minerva Art Academy, autonomous visual artist
art
• Visual artist