Duivennest --- 2025
For Duivennest I nestled in the Pink Room next to my (ex)studio. This work has been inspired by and made specifically for this abandoned classroom. How perfect this space is for a bird nest! With big vents leading through the building, a roof that’s falling apart, connected to a tower. I imagine countless pigeons making a headquarters here, scuffing around, shitting everywhere, but instead it’s empty, not being used at all.
Spookstad Duivennest is an ongoing project, which started during my residency at Extrapool, Destillaat #26. It is my way of dealing with my current housing insecurity and the inability to nestle. Everything goes fast, faster and fastest in this big city, nothing feels permanent anymore. How does one make a home, if you are not sure of how long you can stay?
This is where I feel a deep connection with pigeons. They’re terrible at building nests, they throw some sticks and some tie wraps on the ground and lay their eggs. And it works, it is perfect for their environment. Imagine building a beautiful nest, just to get shooed off a balcony again. My belongings are still unpacked and in boxes, it took me months to hang some things on the walls. I feel like I made myself a pigeon nest in order to survive.
As an artist I’ve inhabited countless strange spaces. My first studio was an old healthcare building, where stairways were equipped with suicide nets, my second studio was a house, with traces of ghosts from the families who lived there for years, the list goes on. Never have I been in a spot doing what is supposed to be happening in the space. I walk the hallways of this old school building and imagine what scenes took place before it got left behind to us.
