Sculpture, space, and memory: Mark Manders opens a journey through introspective realms from September 20.
From September 20, 2025, Museum Voorlinden presents Mindstudy, a solo exhibition by Dutch artist Mark Manders. Over eighty works spanning decades lead us into spaces between sculpture, design, and poetic introspection – an invitation to sense the unsaid in form and material.
Mark Manders (born 1968 in Volkel, Netherlands; now living and working in Ronse, Belgium) stands among the most significant voices in contemporary art. His oeuvre — including sculpture, installation, drawing, and spatial objects — constantly oscillates between the concrete and the ineffable. At Voorlinden he presents Mindstudy from September 20, 2025 to January 18, 2026, showing both iconic and recent works, which together generate layered inner worlds.
Entering the exhibition, one perceives Manders’s interest less in chronological time than in thinking as space. Living room settings, bathrooms, studio environments become stages for thoughts and memories. Bronze may appear like wet clay; familiar objects, such as chairs, are rendered at 88 percent of their real size.
Many sculptures evoke archaeological artifacts; others reference Modernism or mid-20th-century design. Yet always there is something elusive — as if one has discovered a fragment that is simultaneously aesthetic and mysterious. Manders builds scenes where object, space, and meaning strive.
Part of the experience is Voorlinden’s spatial staging: the museum interior is reworked into living rooms, bathrooms, factory-like spaces; the entrance is redirected to lead visitors straight into realms of thought. There is no chronological order — early works may appear contemporary, newer ones feel archeological. This mix creates poetic tension.
For viewers, Mindstudy is not just to observe, but to sink in, to linger, to question: what does memory mean? How do objects shape identity? How does silence carry weight? Manders listens to thoughts — and we are invited to listen too.
