Martin Heynen

MW : How did your interest in art begin?

MH : My childhood didn’t involve much exposure to contemporary art, yet I was always interested in fields like music, painting, photography, and movies. My dad always tried to fix everything and was very curious about the inner workings of things. His go-to material was orange PVC pipe and the world around me turned more and more orange. This DIY approach has definitely influenced me.

MW : Can you talk a bit about your assemblage-based practice?

MH : I don't think in linear terms like I want to do this and then think about how I can best achieve it. I collect objects, make loose conglomerates, record sonic memories and moving imagery - my studio is full of material experiments found and transformed objects. It’s an archive of debris that creates a space of potentialities - an assemblage of becoming. Together with absorbed bits of theory, single fragments materialize into conglomerates, and single conglomerates evolve into environments. The environment surrounds the viewer, lets the viewer be part of it, be con-fused by it.

MW : What draws you to the various materials in your work, and how do you select the objects you incorporate?

MH : The found objects are mostly urban debris that has overcome the status of legitimizing their existence through a specific use for humans and have befriended the destabilizing dust. My past experiences as a member of a glacier research team also influence material choices. Sometimes, I am looking for a certain material quality, other times, I see an object and immediately imagine how I could use it, and then it doesn't work in the studio. These objects often linger for months until they are suddenly perfect for a work, I never thought they would fit in the beginning.

MW : Do you consider your materials as carriers of history? How do you navigate their past functions versus their new roles in your assemblages?

MH : Yes, material’s previous and future life is important to me. These material memories co-constitute the concept together with my current interests. In my works, materials mostly maintain their recognizable raw state and so can evoke memorized bodily actions in the viewer. Post-exhibition materials continue their process of decaying or re-enter the assemblage process for new works.

MW : What role does chance or unpredictability play in the way you assemble and transform materials? Can you describe your process ?

MH : Since I do the works myself, the process itself becomes a collaborating agent expanding my body's abilities. I think the desire to fully control a process would be rather limiting in the way I work. I had a teacher who was obsessed with turning our drawings upside down. I like to have this kind of practice to think more in terms of collaboration and suggestions of all the contributing elements.

MW : What role does fragmentation play in your work, and do you see the narratives you create as open-ended or cyclical?

MH : The Individual fragments never quite fit into a cohesive whole, and with fragmentation, I refer equally to the narrative as to the physical elements. Steered by the fragments on the floor, the viewer’s body engages with the space in a non-linear manner, thereby becoming an intra-acting fragment of the environment itself. How to deal with complexity and the strong urge to grasp something in its entirety? Bayo Akomolafe rhetorically asks: “What can be better than an answer to a question? The gift of bewilderment. The incoming rush of something foreign to the linear logic of the inquiry [...] the motif of becoming generously lost.”

MW : How does technology and moving imagery interact with the physical materials you use, and what does it bring to the experience of your installations?

MH : For moving imagery, I always use smartphones. I like that they blur the lines between who is considered the user and who is the tool in our daily lives and that they have become a kind of extension of the body. According to Chelsea Manning, a physical device will remain important to humans: “Whatever we build, it can’t just be decentralized. Things can be decentralized and can still be co-opted by incumbent powers. It has to be distributed tools, low cost, accessible, verifiable, and require a low amount of power.” In the videos, I often show short loops where the physically existing objects are incorporated, or passages of text suggest a certain way of reading the environments. For sound, I prefer to use exciters because they do not only convey sound but activate things through vibration, infecting their vicinity in a more physical way with resonance. Said this, I view moving imagery, text, sound, and physical materials as equal fragments and resist categorizing them as technological versus non-technological elements, assuming that a product of human origin is natural.

MW : What does your workspace look like, and what is essential for you to have in your studio?

MH : I share an open studio space with eighteen individuals from various fields, including architecture, art, scenography, tailoring, ceramics, and woodwork. I appreciate this collaborative environment and the opportunity to exchange ideas, but my noise canceling headphones are essential for me to work.

MW : Do you have any upcoming projects or shows? Or is there anything you would like to tell us about?

MW : I have an upcoming exhibition in Basel by the end of April, and then I'm looking forward to spending a six-month residency at the Cité Internationale des Arts in Paris, beginning in July (2025).

( This interview was conducted by Material Works (MW) in the spring of 2025 )  

>Martin Heynen