At the IJsselbiënnale 2023 Thijs Ebbe Fokkens transforms a disused lock into a mystical place. Face to face with the impending lock breach, he puts us on edge. He offers a rite of passage, as if to say: it is never too late.

Thijs Ebbe Fokkens (Groningen, 1981, lives and works in The Hague) sees art as a unique instrument with which you can get a grip on the complexity of the world. For him it is a form of ‘thinking out loud visually’. What is initially too big to comprehend, he makes accessible for our own associations and interpretations. He does this by removing objectives and ideas from politics, the financial world, science and technology – from their context and processing them into installation works.

This gives these installations a mythical character and at the same time becomes open and approachable.

Since 2010 Thijs Ebbe Fokkens asks Johan Nieuwenhuize to photograph and film his work.

More on the work of Thijs Ebbe Fokkens: www.thijsfokkens.com