Between dreams and nightmares
Everyone dreams, everyone has nightmares. Sometimes we experience those dreams and nightmares so intensely that they seem almost real. But what is real? How do you define 'real'?
Aren't dreams and nightmares just different realities? Or do they form the boundaries of reality as we know it? What if you experience an intense dream or nightmare and startle awake? Do you take something from that world with you?

These are themes and questions that fascinate artist and designer Jonathan Wanders.

From an early age, his parents - father was an art blacksmith - took Jonathan (Maastricht, 1982) and his sister Valentine to beautiful and special places, museums and people. Art and culture were part of the education. After studying architecture (Bachelor Architecture, Urbanism & Building Sciences) at the TU in Eindhoven and a period of working at an architecture studio, he decided to start for himself.

Jonathan wants to excite and wonder, inspire and question. He continuously seeks to create the right balance between content, simplicity and form, whereby the concept - the story - is leading and often results in a special aesthetic. He is fascinated by what you can achieve with extremely limited resources.

“I am convinced that we don't live in a world where there is a lack of money or technology, but a lack of imagination of what we want our future to look like.”

Jonathan is optimistic and sees the future positively. “The past makes who we are, but the future determines what we do and become. It is up to us to decide what we take into the future. As a society we gradually have all the means at our disposal, now it is important to use them correctly. We live in an exciting time. We are confronted with all kinds of major themes such as: inequality between people in many forms, racism, climate problems, conflicts and (plastic) waste. It is good that we are confronted with all these themes. We have ignored them for too long. Now is the momentum to work together for a better future for people, animals, nature, earth and space. Art and culture pre-eminently play an important role in finding unconventional, surprising answers to the major issues.”

Landscape poetry and mobility aesthetics
Part of his activities are the landscape projects with recurring themes combined with his love and fascination for nature and the landscape. Those themes are expressed in his landscape poetry and mobility aesthetics. “With my landscape projects I want to make people aware of a variety of major issues and processes in a poetic, subtle way. I want to make it understandable, personal and tangible. Creating new dynamic landscapes through surprising and layered interventions in public space.”

Dare to dream. Explore the world without limits, without a speed limit...

The works of Jonathan are part of a process. Just as life is a process: a flowing movement with loose and fixed connections. Jonathan Wanders does not only work on commission and does not always wait - depending on the urgency - for questions or solutions that are proposed by governments, companies or other organizations. He often acts as initiator and takes matters into his own hands, such as with the artworks Disconnected / Reconnected, Refugees (#1) and the totalconcept HX hoogcruts.

Intimate exchanges
Jonathan Wanders' oeuvre will be expanded from summer 2021 to include works of art on which he has worked since 2012 and will continue to work on. In these works he has processed and depicted his personal experiences, themes and fascinations. They are intimate exchanges between artist and spectator. Sometimes with a certain heaviness, sometimes characterized by a light-footed character. They are mostly intimate, personal works of art that touch on universal themes. “The works tell something about myself, but are at the same time also a quest. Self-examination and self-reflection. They tempt the spectators to stop and look and to delve into what I have to say. Obviously this happens in a different way, in a different setting, than is the case with my landscape projects. There is less distraction, more time to explore.”

The works 'Intimate exchanges' are made possible by the Mondriaan Fund.