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The sculpture De deur (2025) is an exact copy of the artist’s front door, but now executed in glass. Fenna Koot (1996) lifted her own wooden door with glass windows off its hinges and made a mould of it. She filled this mould with glass which she melted in the kiln. The glass sculpture she created in this way not only contains all original details of the front door, but also maps its daily life: from the knocker and the peephole, to paint streaks and signs of use.
Koot is interested in the relationship between people and their built environment. How do we move through a space? In what way are these movements controlled by the architecture? And what can architectural structures reveal about the social structures of the society that built them? Koot recreates everyday elements from architecture, such as walls, corners, and doors, and then puts her own stamp on them. She encourages the spectators to reflect on the buildings and structures that surround us in our everyday lives.
Historically, front doors are often seen as reflections of social status and hierarchy: the bigger the door, the more important the owner. Koot is also fascinated with front doors because they mark the boundary between the private domain indoors and the public space outside. Serving as both blockades and gateways, these are usually controlled by the people who live behind them. In this case that’s the artist herself. The specimen in Koot’s installation cannot be opened, but you are able to see straight through it.
Text: Sarah van Binsbergen
Translated from Dutch by Marie Louise Schoondergang (The Art of Translation)