A Hidden Layer in the Realism of Museum MORE

Museum MORE invited me to present A Paper Monument for the Paperless in their ten-year anniversary exhibition on Dutch realism. An honor—so much so that I nearly forgot to critically examine the context in which this monument is now being exhibited.

Realism in art has historically been rooted in making the invisible visible. It reveals the reality of ordinary people, often those on the fringes of society. This idea aligns seamlessly with my work, in which I create portraits of undocumented individuals. But realism is also about the unseen realities hidden behind the façades of institutions.

The setting of Gorssel may not seem directly connected to the lives of the undocumented individuals I portrayed in the cities. Yet, there was also a COA reception center for asylum seekers in Gorssel, and multiple threads link the museum to the themes explored in this work.

When I discovered that the museum had budgeted only €200 per (monumental) artwork for lending fees, I became curious. What does this say about their financial position? About how they value art? Museum MORE has a refined sugar coating—but does its sweetness and painted highlights obscure a much larger pink elephant in the room?

My Paper Monument is a paper ambassador, carrying stories to places where they previously had no access. This work moves between public and institutional spaces, between visibility and the margins. That is why I decided to incorporate an easter egg into this piece—a subtle reference that quietly introduces the reality of this context into an exhibition about realism.

What exactly that is? I’ll keep that cryptic. Look closely, and perhaps you’ll spot a few new paper ambassadors. Sometimes, realism reveals things that were always there but never truly noticed.

Support this international A Paper Monument guerrilla project—get a beautiful, limited hand-printed edition on Hahnemühle 300-gram paper –>HERE<–