Maarten Nico

For Kunstnacht, Maarten Nico presents two sculptural objects on the Waalplein that at first glance are reminiscent of art transport boxes. Or rather, to its promise. Their forms are shifted, stretched or slightly derailed, with too little logic to be fully functional. Branding, drawings, symbols and wood-cut sculptural additions appear in the wood.

From a distance, the objects still seem to be waiting for their contents, as if the work will only reveal itself once the box disappears. Up close, that expectation tilts and the wearer turns out to be the sculpture itself.

Through a soundscape, the two objects take turns getting a voice. In short poetic texts, fragments of memories, observations and possible history and stories unfold. The boxes do not speak unambiguously of themselves, but move somewhere between witness, character and projection. What they tell remains ambiguous: fact, fiction merge unnoticed.

The work is located in a twilight zone of fact and fiction, between what is visibly present and what is filled by imagination. The sculptures seem to bear traces of a past, but do not offer a conclusive explanation anywhere. Are they documents of something that really happened, or are the objects gradually constructing their own mythology?