Kintsugi van Sanne Vaassen
KUNST
a tiny piece, a work of art
Kintsugi van Sanne Vaassen

Maastricht University has a  work of art, a gem, from Sanne Vaassen, which is part of an art concept that is purchased by Bonnefanten museum

Marjolein van der Loo (independent curator) explains:

The pottery fragments in the work Kintsugi are collected during walks in Maastricht. Many of these pieces are manufactured by Maastricht potteries as Regout, Sphinx, Bosch and Mosa that started the industrialization and contributed to the growth of the city around 1835. Sanne associates these trouvailles to Japanese Kintsugi artwork in which damaged earthenware is honorably restored with lacquer and gold. This is related to the Japanese wabi-sabi philosophy in which the beauty of imperfection is appreciated.Sanne uses the fragments with their own local and personal history in order to perform new repairs. Floors, walls, corners and all kinds of constructions could lack a segment that can be repaired by a piece of pottery.

One of the pottery fragments is placed in the courtyard of the Minderbroedersberg. In this way, this location has become part of the concept Kintsugi that is purchased by the Bonnefanten museum. Each time  the artist places a fragment, a framed picture will be send to the Museum, hence an archive is growing.

About the artist:

The artist Sanne Vaassen (1991) is fascinated by movements. She assesses them in their variety of material, shapes and properties. A movement takes time, is in transition or transforms. Whether it is a water flow, a tree that changes during the seasons, or the changes of moles on her skin. She shows us what has remained invisible, not noticed or unrelated to something known. Special about her work is that, she reinvents a research method depending on the topic in a surprising way. Whether she copies her own birthmarks into a tattoo which is placed on the skin of another person. Or she gathers snails to let them make holes in the Book of The National Anthems of the World, which results in a musical notation for a universal hymn. With this last project, she explores identity and culture by questioning it in an unorthodox way. She works with a sharp perception and a great imagination which is reflected in to the work of art Kintsugi.

 website artist

Mieke Derickx

© 2024 Art and Heritage Commission, Maastricht University