Wessel Verrijt

The work of Wessel Verrijt (1992, NL) is an invitation to soften the boundary between the ‘living’ and the ‘non-living’. In the work a sensory reality unfolds, where everything seems to exist in a slowed state: mid-movement, mid-transformation, mid-conversation, mid-dance, mid-ritual, mid-something. 

Sculptures transform from a passive object into living organisms. Its surface functions as a skin: a sensitive, porous, breathing layer that not only covers, but also lives, protects, and carries the traces of touch and time. The temporary sculptures seem to respond to their surroundings, as continuous transformations within an organic ecosystem. Their forms are never fixed: like in an ecosystem, they decay, shift, and renew themselves in a cyclical play of growth and breakdown. This vitality emerges in the folds, pores, and frayed edges of the sculptures. 

Inspired by paganism and the cyclical processes of nature, the work questions the hierarchy between humans and matter, evoking a fluid spirituality in which they are inseparably intertwined. It challenges the modern gaze that reduces the world around us to a mere means for economic gain, and invites us to (re)discover the hidden aliveness of things. He draws inspiration from stories in which natural phenomena are seen as animated, magical forces, such as Fairy Rings, where mushrooms grow in perfect circles as traces of unseen energies that permeate the visible world.  

Performance

The performances Verrijt creates are not stylized choreographies but organic processes in which body, material, and space gradually merge. Since his earliest works, he has explored the delicate boundary between the body and sculptural matter. In this fragile state, sculptures transform into second skins, protective layers that surround the body. Over time, these sculptural forms have become softer: layered, porous structures with openings that allow vision outward while filtering the gaze from outside in.

Each performance unfolds as a living ecosystem: abstract, physical, DIY, tactile, and slow. It moves between installation and ritual, between improvisation and precision. Body and sculpture, inside and outside, ‘living’ and ‘non-living’ dissolve into hybrid states. Like in an ecosystem, the forms are temporary; they change, break down, compost, and return in new guises.

Slowness here is not passivity but an active choice that sharpens the awareness. Sculptural images may linger, giving the audience time to look and discover. Breath, silence, and everyday gestures are part of presence, making the work raw and unforced. What emerges is a site-specific ecosystem where performer, material, and audience remain in constant relation.

Presentations in Museums, Galleries, and Public Space

Verrijt has presented his sculptures as (on-going) performances in group exhibitions and solo exhibitions, such as at: Museum CODA Apeldoorn, EYE Museum Amsterdam (during the opening of Cinedans), Stroom Den Haag, Willem Twee ‘s-Hertogenbosch, AADK Murcia SP, Arti et Amicitiae Amsterdam, De Fabriek Eindhoven, United-C Eindhoven, Art Rotterdam, Verkadefabriek ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Parktheater Eindhoven and Schouwburg Tilburg.

Verrijt also regularly presents sculptures in combination with films of the performances, such as at: ARV.International Veliko Tarnovo BG, Museum Jan Cunen Oss, Mediamatic Amsterdam, Marres Maastricht, Cacaofabriek Helmond, Das Leben Am Haverkamp Den Haag, United-C Eindhoven & Kunsthuis SYB Beetsterzwaag.

He has also carried out various presentations and interventions in public space, such as at H3H Biennale Oosterhout, Paltz Biennale Soest, Derde Wal Nijmegen, Yart.be Ghent, and Processions in Nijmegen & Baarle-Nassau/Hertog.

Currently supported by Mondriaan Fonds & Kunstloc Brabant