–> english below

‘De meeste schoonheid bevindt zich in een vies klein hoekje’

Die ene zin uit een gedachteloos gesprek, een stukje afval in de vorm van een ijsberg, een vensterbank vol taferelen, een meeuw met een milkshake, een vies raam dat het uitzicht verbeterd, een stukje tegel als scherf uit het heelal.

Als kunstenaar verzamel ik gewone situaties en materialen uit mijn directe omgeving die tot mijn verbeelding spreken. Als een soort ontdekkingsreiziger probeer ik de bijzondere kanten en mogelijkheden van deze situaties en materialen te bloot te leggen.

Soms uit dit zich in een uniek werk en soms in een grotere oplage.

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Onderdeel van  Popinnart  

Vertegenwoordigt door YEDS

Voor meer informatie, samenwerkingen of atelierbezoek mail naar maloucohen@gmail.com

——–>Coming up

——–>Instagram

scroll down voor cv

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* english version

‘Most of the beauty can be found in a dirty little corner’

Malou Cohen works in Deventer & Zutphen, the Netherlands, graduated from HKU Fine arts in 2010.

‘Most of the beauty can be found in a dirty little corner’

One peculiar sentence from a random conversation, a piece of trash in the shape of an iceberg, a windowsill full of adventures,
a dirty window whitch is extending the view by troubeling it, polyurethane foam like an island in sea, a piece of tile that looks like a tiny piece of universe

A an artist I am collecting potential materials, scenes and conversations from my direct environment. By asking myself ‘what could this be’ I will try to discover the sides we did not noticed yet.
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My work ranges from very unique works to unlimited editions of multiples whitch I produce on a larger scale available for a bigger audience.

<a href=”//www.maloucohen.com/” target=”_blank”>website</a>

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I am part of the nomadic artcollective Popinnart  
and represented by YEDS

My work ranges from very unique works to editions or multiples whitch I produce on a larger scale available for a bigger audience.

shops & stores who are selling my work

————> instagram

For more info/questions/studiovisits/colabs please feel free to contact me at maloucohen@gmail.com

*

Text by Sabine Winters
A slice of perspective
– the realms of Malou

The city is a spectacle, a cacophony of odours, illuminations, and sounds. The city, swarming with people, where snippets of conversations are picked up and taken home by strangers. The city, which is in constant flux and where something always escapes one’s attention. The city acts as the grandiose décor for a sloppy and haphazard mise en scène, and it is precisely within this pandemonium of occurrences that Malou spots untold stories; what might appear as uninteresting and abject to us, is placed front and centre in her work.

In her work, Malou uses found objects sourced from the streets; a gold-coloured candy wrapper, plastic flowers pulled from the dumpster, fragments of a conversation. For many, such objects might seem worthless, and such events plain boring. Then again, why is something labelled as ‘worthless’ or ‘uninteresting,’ and who, in fact, gets to determine this? This is a question we fail to ask ourselves regularly, which is reflected in Instagram’s endless feed of famous monuments and exotic locations; might it be possible that the true spectacle unfolds right before our eyes just as we go about our daily lives? The things and situations that might appear as mere trifles to the untrained eye are precisely the foundations of Malou’s artistic practice. For her, beauty is sheathed in the triviality of things and situations she encounters on the street. She uses found objects, events, and images as portals to another realm.

Where Instagram presents us with an endless feed of snapshots of famous monuments, Malou simply takes to the street to find the real spectacle; down an alleyway off the main road, a white laced curtain dances in the wind, flapping from the open window of an apartment block.

Malou carefully selects a tiny slice of reality and brings it to the fore. With this gesture, she invites us to (re)consider the ways in which value is assessed; why are some substances deemed more valuable than others? Simply asking this question out loud allows us to distance ourselves from the (social) constructs that shape our society and the ways in which value is produced; in the blink of an eye, everything might appear to be either worthless or, infact, invaluable!

By adopting a critical approach towards her own values and principles throughout the production process, her practice simultaneously becomes a form of self-investigation. For every decision during the creation of a work is informed by subjective value allocation, which is contingent upon prevailing—and often contesting—convictions of beauty and ugliness.
Weighing up these convictions against one another and drawing personal conclusions is not only part and parcel of her work and practice, but furthermore urges her audience and colleagues to do the same. Malou divulges her answers in morsels; they might be collaged works that imply a hidden narrative; the work titles that function as a kind of associative umbrella; or a precise naming of the materials used. With these, Malou encourages the viewers to use their imagination. Without trying to impose her own perspective, Malou gingerly invites us to contemplate the nature of value allocation.

“I want to share the desire that imagination can summon, to draw attention to the unseen. In the best case scenario, I hope to impart a person with a different view on the world. That is the purpose of my work; it’s what I do, what constantly occupies my mind. I believe that the world would become a more beautiful and better place if everyone adopted a more receptive
and open minded view.”