Elsemarijn Bruys
With her artworks and installations, Elsemarijn Bruys (1989, NL) challenges two basic elements that are always around us: light and air. Specifically, she challenges the way we humans are accustomed to experiencing them: as something self-evident that is made to “make sense” by the brain. Bruys' works are ingenious interventions in space – a break with the normal course of events – that sharpen the viewer's senses in a way that is often as simple as it is effective.
Using reflective materials, bold colours and rhythmic repetition as key tools, Bruys intervenes in the existing environment. Whether this is an exhibition hall, a festival site or a living room, the starting point is always to pleasantly disrupt the spatial experience. In this sense, Bruys is a manipulative minimalist who plays with truth as we know it. When we are confronted with our environment in a new, slightly alienating way, which reality do we experience as the “real” one?