Something with missing

2021

potato skin, bean skin, pepper skin, bicycle pump, glass, brass

as part of "Constantijn Huygens. Een leven in brieven"
in collaboration with the Huygens Institute for the History of the Netherlands at Huygens’ Hofwijck Museum, Voorburg,
23 February – 28 May 2022

The person Constantijn Huygens is long dead.
All that is left of him are his letters, his house, and the image we have constructed of him. This image is a representation that says more about us and our society today than about Huygens himself.

Air fills the potato skin. For a moment it almost looks like a real, living potato.

What do we, as a society, keep? What do we consider to be valuable and culturally important? How do we fill the empty walls of our museums? And how permeable are these walls to the breath of our lives today?

I am watching the air slowly escaping,
I am observing the way in which more and more wrinkles are appearing until the potato is no more than an after-image.

Foto Konstantin Guuz