At the annual open ateliers of the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunst are a couple of ‘propositions’ like a scale-model or picture of an installation to be seen in the studio of Maze de Boer. In the studio is a separate area in which the things are to be seen that where in the studio during the year.

The chair that stood behind the desk all year is ‘still’ at the spot, even though the desk is not there. Because of usage the floor shows signs of wear under the chair. It shows the previous colour of the floor was green.

In the publication of the Open Ateliers was a text by Tudor Bratu (also resident artist):

A few years ago I saw a beautiful movie, called Looking for Richard, in which Al Pacino, together with a group of British and American actors, sets out to discover and re-interpret Shakespeare’s The tragedy of Richard III. 

In recalling, or, perhaps, feeling Maze’s work, I return to the last scene of this movie, shot on location in the theatre where Shakespeare was employed, in which a hunchbacked Pacino suddenly straightens up, then exits the stage and utters the final words: “Such, is the stuff dreams are made of and these actors, that you’ve seen here today, are mere ghosts, fading…” 

Perhaps, it is this knowledge of the mind and the soul together, that Maze’s work deals with, while constantly balancing on the edge of the actual real and the felt real, or, the dream-real, that real which in its veiled form, is possibly always present.

It doesn’t seem strange to me, therefore, that if a green field should wish itself famous, a prop, the white outline of a castle, suddenly appears where there was none before, as a witness to a mystical and poetic history, one that Maze places outside of time. The sensation is that of a call to dream, a soft call, gentle and careful, but urgent none the less, especially, since these places that Maze unravels for us, are of a contemplative quiet, seldom encountered in the rush of contemporary life.

Made possible with support of: Koninklijke Ahrend NV

Review (Dutch)
Volkskrant, 30 November 2007

Trouw, 15 January 2008

Domein voor Kunstkritiek (Essay)