Visual Art

Bumper Car

A bumper car on a track eighty times smaller than the real thing, where stillness sparks the imagination.

Location Various locations
Production 2009
Material Steel, aluminum, chicken wire, lighting, bumper car, transformer
Measurement 335 x 200 x 270 cm (LxWxH)

At first glance, Bumper Car appears to be a familiar fairground attraction: glossy paint, colorful lights, and the promise of speed and collisions. Yet this bumper car sits on a track more than eighty times smaller than a real one, with room for only a single car.

With barely ten centimeters of clearance on either side, movement is almost impossible. You can inch slightly left or right, but there is no speed and no other cars to collide with. The usual thrill of the ride is absent.

It is precisely this limitation that transforms the experience. Bumper Car invites visitors to sit down and engage their imagination. Devoid of action or adrenaline, the fairground promise shifts into something else: a mental space where play is driven not by movement or impact, but by what you can imagine.


Bumper car has also been shown at Service Garage, Car Art Fair, Tweetakt, Corrosia, Gewoon Bijzonder, De Parade.