On the day before the opening of the past PAN fair in Amsterdam, I was visited by former EU commissioner Neelie Kroes. She was invited by the organisation to select five works at the fair that she wanted to give a star. One of the selected works came from my stand. The central theme of Neelie's selection was minimalism. This is what she wrote about it: ‘Minimalism takes you back to the essence, the core of life. Minimalist art is the opposite of boring because you can keep thinking and imagining for yourself without being distracted. In fact, the viewer becomes the creator.’ "Minimalisme brengt je terug naar de essentie, de kern van het leven. Minimalistische kunst is het tegenovergestelde van saai, omdat je zelf kunt blijven nadenken en fantaseren zonder afgeleid te worden. In feite wordt de kijker de maker."

Although Neelie Kroes eventually selected a beautiful work by Hans Kooi, after hesitating for a long time between works by Ine Vermee and Riki Mijling, for me the last sentence in her thesis on minimalism applies most to Mijling's work: ‘In fact, the viewer becomes the maker.’ "In feite wordt de kijker de maker."

To mark her 70th birthday, Coppejans Gallery is paying tribute to Riki Mijling with a solo exhibition. As a title, I chose ‘70 years, every day is the same’. It is a reference to a three-part sculpture from 2023 of the same name. As with many of her other works, in this one Mijling allows us to change the composition of the three parts, each time leading to a new image that contains both the hand of the artist and that of the viewer. As a result, the possibilities suddenly become endless. '70 jaar, every day is the same'. Het is een verwijzing naar een driedelig sculptuur uit 2023 met dezelfde naam. Net als bij veel van haar andere werken, laat Mijling ons bij dit werk toe om de compositie van de drie delen te veranderen, wat telkens leidt tot een nieuw beeld waarin zowel de hand van de kunstenaar als die van de kijker zit. De mogelijkheden worden hierdoor plots eindeloos.

Mijling's work is always free and open. It does not come with a manual of what is allowed or required, the artist's ego is absent at the time. In a way, therefore, it is about letting go, a philosophy that is also connected to the fact that she subjects her work to the forces of nature. The sculptures are allowed to rust, or are burnt black and left to the randomness of the fire. It is perhaps these aspects that excite me so much as an art lover. It cannot help but be that the elements that have become central after all these years of art practice are also part of Riki's attitude to life. And that is something that, in times of growing reporting and validation urges, is perhaps more valuable than ever.

Artists: Riki Mijling