What would it be like to look at the world from above? During a season full of (not often uplifting) news—from international tense scenarios to climate-related crises—”walking through the clouds” may be a viable alternative.

This idea takes a concrete form in the work “Walk on Clouds”, by the French performance artist Abraham Poincheval. This piece opens the current exhibition at the Dutch museum Voorlinden in Wassenaar, a few kilometers outside The Hague. Completed the year before COVID-19’s lockdowns, this video inspires the show’s title (Cloudwalker) and offers visitors a unique perspective. And sets the pace of the route through the exhibition space and the other pieces on display.

Helped by the stunning location of the museum surroundings and amply lit rooms, a walk through the artworks serves as respite from the continuous flow of news (and daily struggles.) It also provides an alternative view of today’s world, seemingly lacking balance and stability.

Indeed, then, why not try to hike in the air?

Cloud Walking

“Walk on Clouds” materializes Pointcheval’s dream of skywalking. Lifted above the earth’s surface and suspended from a hot air balloon, the artist brings us along, sharing the mesmerizing views of an early morning sky.

However dreamy the scenery may be, the moving images on the vast screen drag the viewers to reality through the sounds of the air system that makes the balloon fly. Moreover, the silence is interrupted by the artist playing his harmonica. With his music, he fills the void of being suspended, alone, in the quiet atmosphere of the break of dawn. No matter if he is enjoying the view, the environment is unfamiliar, and the physical and mental challenges expand the feelings of loneliness.

Pointcheval’s work is only the introduction to the show on display in Wassenaar until January 2025. Wandering through the space, the visitor can lose the sense of perspective and direction, for example, entering Yayoi Kusama’s “Infinity Mirror Room: Gleaming Lights of the Souls.” As the title suggests, it is a walk-in dark box, internally lit by sparse coloured light bulbs that infinitely reflect in the mirrored walls, floor and ceiling.

In another room, “Atmosphere No. 157 (Influence)” by Ian Fischer challenges the viewer’s senses: Is that cloud painted? Or is it moving outside a window? “In Between” by Jan van Munster also expands those feelings of uncertainty. In this sculptural piece, a steel pole, constantly dragged by gravity toward the wall, is never allowed to rest, not to touch it: a subtle force holds it and makes it float just a few centimetres away in a constant unbalanced state.

Besides the works exhibited in Cloudwalker, visitors can enjoy the biggest solo show by the Australian artist Ron Mueck. More than looking at the world from above, in this retrospective, the hyperreality of every piece focuses on and highlights different states of the human being. It explores human feelings through the statues’ expressions and visitors’ experience of looking at them.

Mueck plays with scale. His sculptures are either massive, slightly off in dimension or too small altogether. By doing that, it «confronts you, hits you instantly, even when he moves beyond realistic», as the head of exhibitions, Barbara Bos, commented. Every detail, from the quality of the (fake) skin to the meticulous position of each body-hair reproduced to perfection, stuns, making the viewer question what he/she is facing. Is the sculpture showing feelings? Is that an actual body?

Yes to all, in Rotterdam

If the dreamy visions in The Hague offer a possible shift from reality, in Rotterdam, the Swiss artist Sylvie Fleury offers a commentary on reality, presenting thought-provoking contrasts and modifying items of daily-use. Through the language of fashion and pop culture and reinterpreting common objects, she sparks a compelling feminist discourse. In fact, as shown in the exhibition Yes to All, she visually translates the tension between masculine and feminine by opposing colours and shapes and elevating everyday things to artworks – literally displaying some on pedestals.

In the open space of the Kunsthal, the visitor enters a world of familiar elements, yet extrapolated from their natural context and elevated to luxury objects worthy of their place in an art show.

It happens, for example, to the golden chart on a rotating platform or of the two car tyres converted into shiny fountains (a nod to Duchamp’s most famous ready-made?). To the giant mushrooms painted in rainbow colours with car varnish. And to the sparkling pink rocket, unsuitable to go to space but too big to be a children’s toy. And even to the massive makeup palette hanging at the room’s rear. Its dimension and position on the wall have a minimalistic painterly quality.

The works scattered in the room, as different as they are, are linked through contrasts—from hard to soft, peace and fight, energy and stillness. And entering Fleury’s solo show is like walking into a different world. Visitors must cross a cove lit by fake crystals to see the exhibition. Then, the bright space opens up. Then, like the neon sign on the floor screams, ‘FASTER/BIGGER/BETTER’, the eye wanders. There isn’t a single way in or around, nor a suggested route to follow. But scattered elements of distraction and a distortion from the expected.

Is this all a commentary on the present era of high speed and energy? On consumerism? Or, as implied by “Cristal Custom Commando”*, the re-appropriation of women’s voices beyond objectification and (unreachable) standards imposed by society? One thing is for sure: it is evident that the self-appointed punk feminist in disguise considers femininity as a weapon. And her objects’ wreckage, an action to free them from societal constructs. «Sometimes – she says – all you need to do is scratch the surface; other times, you have to blow it to pieces».

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* These works are made of fashion purses used as target for shooting practice and, actually, shot and, obviously, badly damaged.

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