In ‘Warding Window’ and ‘Geest’, Bart Lunenburg explores the windows, doors, roofs, and walls of historical rural architecture. Through sculptures, photographs, and drawings, he delves into themes of power and superstition that linger in the shadows of these architectural elements. His inspiration stems from Anglo-Saxon and Viking farmhouses, with a focus on the transition between interior space and the outside world.
In the series of wall sculptures ‘Warding Window’ (2023), Lunenburg explores the design and characteristics of window shutters found in the Eastern part of The Netherlands. Their colours and compositions referred to the heraldic weapons of the local landowners and served as a symbol of feudal ownership. Lunenburg deconstructed historic shutter designs and rearranged them into new rhythmic compositions, a similar method to making a quilt or a patchwork. The artist discovered that once the farmhouse owner changed — due to marriage, war, or succession — the window shutters were painted over with new colours and designs.
The reliefs from ‘Warding Window’ are installed perpendicular to the wall, revealing both the front and back of the work. This setup creates a speculative field implying new forms of possession, inviting contemplation on the relativity of power, where windows and shutters bear witness to an ongoing struggle for possession.
Within his multidisciplinary art practice, Bart Lunenburg (b. 1995, NL) researches themes related to architecture and its history, urban design, and architectural heritage. The artist approaches buildings and cities as if they had a memory of their own. Lunenburg works with photography and video as well as with sculpture, drawing, and spatial installations. Usually, these different modes of expression have a similar starting point — he often creates scale models to develop his research.
Bart Lunenburg graduated in photography from the HKU in 2017, and his work received attention both in the Netherlands and abroad. In 2022, Lunenburg is exhibited in group shows at Atelier NŌUA (Bodø, NO), Kunsthal KAdE (Amersfoort, NL) and Museum Catharijneconvent (Utrecht, NL) and with a solo presentation at Buitenplaats Doornburgh (Maarssen, NL). Past presentations include FOTODOK / Casco Art Institute (Utrecht, NL), Garage Rotterdam (Rotterdam, NL); Fotografiska (Stockholm, SE); R SPACE (Ljubljana, SL); Museum Flehite (Amersfoort, NL), P/////AKT (Amsterdam, NL); Prospects at Art Rotterdam; and Unseen Photography fair. In 2018 he was nominated for the KF Hein Stipendium, and in 2021 — for the Foam Paul Huf Award. His work is in the collections at a.o. AMC, BPD, Ekard Collection, Reyn van der Lugt, Stichting StrandLinks and various private collections.