Laurens Kruger

Sometimes my thoughts explode

My work is about agency and resonance. About communication, listening, connection, and violence.

At the Finals, I'm showing two interrelated works on this topic. They illuminate two different sides of the deafening discourse of power-hungry voices.

One work, indoors, is about being able to hear yourself. It proposes taking a vocal bath, as medicine or self-care.

The other work, outdoors, is a landscape of the current din of power discourse and its impact.

In my art, I shape my relationship with the world through intensive negotiations with the materials I use. These materials can be anything: wood, clay, wool, textiles, existing objects, my own hair, to name a few. I create objects that function as emotional tools and place them in performative installations.

My work often stems directly from tensions or anger about the arrangements of our current world or the political situation. It is a personal reflection and processing of these. At the same time, it has a discursive layer: I seek to highlight what is existentially necessary for (moral) survival in an absurd world.

The performative installation functions as an affective landscape: the visitor is invited to enter and wander through it. With their own thoughts, associations, images, and feelings. As in a poem.