Die Dutch catalog

A project by Lucyeileen Hernandez

For her graduation project at the Hogeschool van de Kunsten in Utrecht in 2005, Lucyeileen Hernandez designed a funeral catalog. As a Mexican native living in the Netherlands, Lucyeileen was struck by the sternness of Dutch funerals. Lucyeileen says: 'Funerals in Holland are very formal and sober, while in Mexico they are more like a party. The purpose of this catalogue is to mock funerals and death in Holland. Die Dutch suggests a kind of "do it your self" funeral that is very personal but most important very cheap! This makes "Die Dutch" not only a brand but also a statement.'

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Die Dutch, a project by Lucyeileen Hernandez. -

Lucyeileen explains: "People say that Mexicans have a special relationship with death and I agree. We know that we can’t do anything about it, but what we can do is using our creativity and imagination to mock death with humor and irony. For Mexicans death has a lot of color and also a happy face. I think funerals in Holland are too sober and too formal. In my opinion, it should be a happy celebration where families and friends can gather to farewell their relatives and accept death as a new beginning of life and not as an end. Dutch people find death very private and also personal. Most of them avoid the subject or simply feel uncomfortable to talk about it. The Dutch have made their deceased really “dead” and unreachable. Dutch funerals have sober rituals, traditions and beliefs. This has created a large distance between the deceased and the living. Therefore, my suggestion is to consider other ways of dealing with the dead based on Native Mexican rituals."
(Source: uitvaart.nl).

Download the full catalog below (in Dutch only).