🩹 2nd best #1 🔨
🗓️ 30 May 2025 — 29 June 2025📍️ Kunsthal Kloof, Utrecht
A duo exhibition by Sander van Noort & Paul Heusinkveld at Kunsthal Kloof
An exhibition about the glory of coming in second. Or about failing spectacularly. Almost perfect, but not quite. But all in all pretty well done.
In this duo exhibition, artists Sander van Noort (NL, 1986) and Paul Heusinkveld (NL, 1997) present their work in an art space balancing between restoration and ruin. Responding to the recent renovation efforts at Kunsthal Kloof, Sander and Paul have transformed the exhibition space into a state of “help-my-artist-is-a-handyman.” Presented as incomplete, their works appear amidst slanting walls and scattered construction materials. Insulation foam bulges through cracks, hiding tiny artworks within. Larger pieces burst through flimsy drywall, and improvised installations rise from the floor.
It all seems a bit inept—clumsy, even. In the absence of polish or conventional success, you start to wonder: what went wrong? Where lies the beauty in walls warped by thumb-lengths? What’s so fantastic about this crooked, chaotic artspace?
But that tension is precisely the point. After all the measuring and fitting, succes isn’t the goal. 2nd best #1 proudly puts failure on a pedestal. By examining and embracing “clumsiness,” Sander and Paul push back against the demand for perfection that seems increasingly demanded by a grim, late-capitalist world. In a generation full of control freaks and perfectionists, the pressure to succeed can feel inescapable.
And yet, here we are. It might not look finished, but it is ready nonetheless. Imagination shines through incomplete things just the same. Clumsiness doesn’t just reflect what’s not yet perfect—it dreams of what could be. This exhibition mirrors the ever-evolving artistic practice, full of beautiful imperfections. It invites to feel satisfaction with outcomes that may look nothing like what was first imagined.
An exhibition about the glory of coming in second. Or about failing spectacularly. Almost perfect, but not quite. But all in all pretty well done.
In this duo exhibition, artists Sander van Noort (NL, 1986) and Paul Heusinkveld (NL, 1997) present their work in an art space balancing between restoration and ruin. Responding to the recent renovation efforts at Kunsthal Kloof, Sander and Paul have transformed the exhibition space into a state of “help-my-artist-is-a-handyman.” Presented as incomplete, their works appear amidst slanting walls and scattered construction materials. Insulation foam bulges through cracks, hiding tiny artworks within. Larger pieces burst through flimsy drywall, and improvised installations rise from the floor.
It all seems a bit inept—clumsy, even. In the absence of polish or conventional success, you start to wonder: what went wrong? Where lies the beauty in walls warped by thumb-lengths? What’s so fantastic about this crooked, chaotic artspace?
But that tension is precisely the point. After all the measuring and fitting, succes isn’t the goal. 2nd best #1 proudly puts failure on a pedestal. By examining and embracing “clumsiness,” Sander and Paul push back against the demand for perfection that seems increasingly demanded by a grim, late-capitalist world. In a generation full of control freaks and perfectionists, the pressure to succeed can feel inescapable.
And yet, here we are. It might not look finished, but it is ready nonetheless. Imagination shines through incomplete things just the same. Clumsiness doesn’t just reflect what’s not yet perfect—it dreams of what could be. This exhibition mirrors the ever-evolving artistic practice, full of beautiful imperfections. It invites to feel satisfaction with outcomes that may look nothing like what was first imagined.
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