Please Take Nothing But Memory

Please Take Nothing But Memory centres on a pigment migration technique, in which layers of varnish, dirt, and superficial pigment are chemically lifted from antique oil paintings and transferred onto textile. Developed in collaboration with restoration experts, this process yields faint imprints that are then mounted within various antique objects sourced from local auction houses, selected for the way they circulate within the auction house’s value system as seemingly discarded fragments of the past.

Daan Couzijn (NL) is an interdisciplinary, conceptual artist currently based in Amsterdam and Paris. Central to his artistic practice is a persistent desire for — and simultaneous questioning of — authenticity.  His work oscillates between the romantic notion that artists should pursue authenticity and the postmodern understanding that all ideas are inherently derivative, echoing pre-existing simulacra. Rather than regarding the artwork as as an end point, Couzijn approaches it as a temporary node within an ever-expanding network of contributions. By frequently incorporating found objects, materials and images into his work, he constructs visual narratives that probe the instability of authenticity, the mechanics of cultural memory, and the endless reproduction of iconographies in an image-saturated world. He is currently represented by PLUS-ONE Projects in Antwerp. His practice was recognised by the Mondriaan Fund in 2021 when he received the Artist Start grant.