Machiel Beijaert (1996, NL) currently based in Amsterdam
machbeijaert@gmail.com – 0031617434656
In my work, I challenge the different ways how we, as a society, look at and understand our temporary world. Why do we as humans act and see things in specific ways and can we free ourselves of the rules we impose on us? Through videos and installations, I tell tales that mutate between being real and fictitious – that of a scooter that ended up on the bottom of the ocean from the perspective of the scooter itself, or that of an air filtering machine in a gloomy bomb shelter that never got to be used.
I am intrigued by how we as humans try to control, frame and organize everything. Every space has its own presence and potential and we treat this in different ways. Where lies the fragile line between nature and artificiality? When and where do we let nature run loose, chaos over order?
Through their surrounding worlds, I want to question the states that objects, spaces, or beings can transform between. Be they houseplants that stayed behind on the street as trash, slowly disappearing – plastic plants blending in with living plants in a hotel lobby ecosystem, or an endless topiary fight against godlike boundaries: my work wishes to outline the passivity they are prey to and protect them from the strong surge of time passing by.