Anabelle Binnerts
Playfulness is very important when it comes to language...As soon as something takes the form of written language, it acquires an image of serious theory, as if it were a task. People expect the text to contain the explanation of the image they are here for.
Anabelle Binnerts (1995, Netherlands) develops installations in which language is both subject and material. Working with textiles, murals, publications, and performance, she treats words as something physical that can be shaped, stretched, and placed in space. In her work, text is not only meant to be read but also experienced. Words appear across surfaces and environments, inviting the viewer to move through them as if entering a landscape. Meanings shift as they are read, heard, or remembered, allowing each viewer to form their own interpretation.
Binnerts is interested in how we try to understand and describe things that are difficult to grasp, such as vast landscapes or abstract ideas. She explores how language helps us give structure to the unknown, while also leaving space for ambiguity. Words, in her view, live a double life: they exist on the page, but also in the imagination of the reader. By giving language a visual and spatial form, her work creates moments where meaning is not fixed, but continuously shaped through reading, looking, and experiencing.
