The Polite Fictions project consists of three components. Found journalistic photographs and television footage are complemented by correspondence with state authorities and institutions. As a comment, they are joined by elegant large-format photographs of strange still lifes. The meeting of statesmen accompanied by the symbolic handing over of the gifts is followed by a deep silence: Schols was not allowed from the authorities to photograph the gifts and thus she reconstructs their current state in the portraits of anonymous amorphous shapes on rough archival shelves. The festive moment of history is thus transformed into a still life in the spirit of the Dutch tradition, with its symbolism of evanescence. -rv-