Bart Lunenburg at Brummelkamp Galerie of Amsterdam UMC

Solo exhibition Circulations

On view from 24 January until 14 March, 2023

How do air currents move through this building? How does a patient, visitor or employee walk through the corridors of the hospital? What visible and invisible dynamics are determined by architecture? You may not see it, but all kinds of things are happening around you to ensure the quality of the air we breathe. HEPA filters, air circulation, window open. Artist Bart Lunenburg is fascinated by these invisible systems that surround us every day. While researching the relationship between air quality and disease, he went back in time and came across images of plague masters. In times of plague epidemics, these ‘doctors’ were the people who, with a well-known beak mask, filled with (smoldering) herbs, ensured the isolation of patients. When the corona pandemic broke out, it gave Lunenburg’s research a new impulse. How do we deal with similar problems now? Fortunately, one no longer has to rely on weird masks and herbal smoke. To connect history with current events, the artist has brought architecture and history together in photography.

The self-built models in conjunction with the burning herbs give a picture of the search for a medical solution: then and now. In addition, Lunenburg has made two wall sculptures especially for this exhibition, for which he has drawn from the architecture of the AMC building. The invisible structures of the architecture play a role here. Lunenburg compares the flow of air and blood in the human body to the architecture of a building. The wall sculptures on display enter into a relationship with the building and with the core process of the hospital. For these new works of art he investigated the mechanisms of the building.