Labyrinth of Memories
Trees are the lungs of our earth. Every day, a football field of trees disappears every second, often for economic reasons.
Bianca Runge feels a deep connection with nature. In her artwork she sketches a fairytale-like and dystopian world, built from luxurious remnants of our society.
Interaction
Bianca finds it interesting to interact with the public outside the usual ‘white cubes’. The openwork carpets create paths on the ground, a labyrinth that you can walk in. A labyrinth has traditionally been a place for reflection. Each trunk serves as a memorial site; shrine or totem. Some trunks are already overgrown, others have just fallen prey to the saw.
Visitors are invited to share their own memory of nature and leave it in a hole in one of the trunks.
About Bianca Runge
As a child, Bianca surrounded herself with treasures found on the street such as screws, beads and coins. By giving them new meaning and value, she was able to create a safe and unique world for herself in the first block of the Huizen growth center. She is still a collector, but now she scours thrift stores and marketplaces in search of beads, carpets and other redundant luxury items with which she builds her works of art.
Sustainability
Not only does she want to create awareness with her work, she has also set up a platform where companies can offer their sustainable residual material to artists and creative makers. www.restmateriaalvoorkunstenaars.nl
Overgrowth
In the artwork “Overgrowth,” beads proliferate over softly gleaming aluminum trunks, while fragmented carpets form the ground, giving nature a voice and challenging our consumer society.
Each trunk becomes a new canvas on which the artist “paints” with surplus beads, inspired by the colors of the old carpets. The beads, chains, and occasional shreds of old wedding dresses spread like moss and pests, forming their own patterns. They seduce and allure until one realizes their deeper message. By cutting into traditional carpets, a new perspective emerges on traditional patterns and their symbolism. The artist assembles them, much like she used to create collages. New paths open up, inviting viewers to come closer.
The trunks are storytellers, silent witnesses of a world in which trees increasingly yield to economic interests. Like real trees, they communicate with each other through an invisible network. They are a layered metaphor for the tension between humans, nature, and the decay of culture. This imagery confronts viewers with the impact of industrialization and human activity on our natural environment.
The materials used carry their own histories. Smyrna carpets gained popularity during the post-war reconstruction in the 1950s and, like jewelry, symbolize our prosperity. Industrialization made many items accessible to everyone, while increasingly rapid advertising fueled consumerism. Wealth seemed boundless and capable of growing endlessly toward the sky. Today, we witness the disastrous consequences all around us.
Bianca has always felt like an outsider in a world where she helplessly observed and struggled to find her place. Growing up in the rapidly expanding suburb of Huizen, she lived in the very first residential block to be completed. Entire neighborhoods sprouted from reclaimed land during her childhood. She always hoped to find exciting trinkets like coins, screws, and beads on the streets. She would collect them in her coat pockets, surrounding herself with objects that held a history or meaning, creating her own world in this newly built area where memories were yet to be made.
In these neighborhoods, low-maintenance saplings were planted, and all the greenery was still blossoming. Despite this, she felt the strongest connection to animals and nature. She had a forest painted on the wall of her room. Her treasures took on new significance and value as she crafted her own world. Some of her findings found a place beneath her pillow in the loft bed, shielding her from a world and people she didn’t understand.
She remains a collector to this day, scouring thrift stores and online marketplaces for beads and carpets that she now transforms into art. “For me, creating art is a way to cope with my powerlessness toward our society,” she says. “A society of which I am also a part, and in which I seek my own path. I create my own world and express my vision of our consumer society, aiming to raise awareness and work together toward a more humane society.”