Peter Zegveld

The Ex Machina exhibition at Museum Beelden aan Zee unveils new work by visual artist and musician Peter Zegveld (The Hague, 1951), in which technology and imagination coalesce and the unexpected is repeatedly brought to life. Be surprised by a series of sculptures and installations featuring kinetic forces, shadow, illusion and absurdism. With Ex Machina, Zegveld invites you into a fascinating interplay of vulnerability and of what is inevitably yet to come.

Curator: Sjarel Ex

Drawing on an artistic tradition in which artists such as Alexander Calder and Jean Tinguely explored material, movement and imagination, multidisciplinary artist Peter Zegveld has developed a distinctive and elusive body of work. His practice spans visual art and theatre as well as music, television, performance and installations in public spaces. He combines memories, associations and unexpected connections into a continuous creative flow, with experimentation and innovation at its core. His work is characterised by an ongoing interplay between construction and imagination, control and chance.

Ex Machina reveals a new dimension of Zegveld’s artistry: that of an artist who plays with sensory experience and intuition. Prose transforms into poetry. Whereas earlier projects often emphasised grand gestures, spectacle and interventions in public spaces — such as a drive-through theatre made from shipping containers on the A6 motorway or an action painting using explosives — this exhibition focuses on the concentrated experience of the moment, centering on smaller, yet no less intense, observations. You will encounter works in which imagination takes centre stage.

Thumbnail / header image: Peter Zegveld, Massa. Kinetics, projection and sound, 2019.
Portrait Peter Zegveld, Stef Verstraaten