Z33

Smeermaas-Kessenich

Benjamin Verdonck

Benjamin Verdonck explores the Meuse Valley on foot. Along the way he collects objects that tell us something about the area, from stones and seeds to plastic packaging and lost jewelry. He treats these everyday objects as relics which he presents in various chapels throughout the Meuse Valley. The carefully arranged collections show his journeys through the area where water and people each leave their own traces. 

Benjamin Verdonck (BE, 1972) is a theater maker and visual artist. His idiosyncratic practice, both inside and outside the theater, often gives a leading role to ‘things’. Verdonck’s collecting practice activates the attention for what surrounds us. The artist uses modest interventions to reveal the extraordinary in the everyday, a form of ‘caring for’ that cannot be seen separately from human neglect of the environment.