Artist statement

Before I enter an abandoned building, I hesitate. Am I allowed to be here? Am I safe here? But usually my curiosity wins. Once inside the space, I become aware that I am alone here. In the silence and the darkness, I only hear the sounds that I and the building make. A footstep by me is answered by a creaking sound from the floor. The building no longer has a visible owner and is freed from purpose and function. For a moment, the space is mine, and I can give it my own meaning. I can wander around and open every door. I can stand still for a long time at a wall, and simply not think about anything. Wisdom and insights can emerge from my depths. I can allow secret desires to enter in complete peace. I can hide here, even when there is no danger. The space approves with everything.

With my work, I want to make such an experience available to others. The sites that inspire me are shaped by human presence and once abandoned, they become more-than-human entities themselves. They have a body and a soul, and they are in a constant state of transformation. Spaces have a memory that is both visible and invisible, and conversely, spaces exist in the memory of their inhabitants. The spaces that inspire me look like a film set, but they are not fictional. Here, reality is stranger than fiction.

My practice is dedicated to the experience of space and place, and my projects start with my personal relationship with a self-chosen site or building. In some cases, this dialogue with the place is a project in itself. In other projects I choose my medium and techniques site-specifically, informed by the identity of the place as I came to know it. In situ, as well as in my maquettes and drawings, I work with what is already there or what has been there. I don’t add any new objects unless they are aimed to expose the site itself. In everything I do, I aim to create poetic experiences of space and place which reveal the magic of reality.