Interview spring 2024 with Heidi Vandamme for Yoga International (Dutch Only).
Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
By Christoph Schütte
17.02.2023
Photographs like a freshly made bed
This is where the artworks could hang. The reception would be set up there, maybe the museum shop here or in the corner the visitor cloakroom. However, the rooms, hallways and corridors that characterise Satijn Panyigay's still young photo-artistic work are mainly naked. And completely empty. Sober, sometimes only the shell, sometimes apparently just cleared out for renovation, and yet full of excit expectations. One could call it a unique promise, like a freshly made bed, even where it remains unclear where one is at all.
Fewer, because it is no longer exclusively museum spaces – the exhibition halls, for example, or the spectacular depot by Boijmans van Beuningen open to visitors in Rotterdam – that present the motifs of the Dutch artist, who is still little known in Germany; because the exhibits are missing or because in none of her series, with which Panyigay introduces herself as a new gallery artist at Peter Sillem, there is ever a single person to be seen. Here and there a narrow strip of light appears under the door, one suspects more than actually seeing it, a window or a glowing, bright shadow eats its way into the dark room. But mostly there is no hint, no matter how delicate, of an outside.
So that one would have good reason to doubt Panyigay's pictures, to take the recordings for a staging or for backdrops the size of a doll's house, as one knows from the photographs of Oliver Boberg or Thomas Demand. But the opposite is the case. When the artist, who was born in Nijmegen in 1988, takes a look at the cool corridors of a new building or fills the format with angles, alignments and bright white walls in the Kröller-Müller Museum, known for its Van Gogh collection, she takes the rooms as they present themselves.
And yet, photographed with the medium format camera exclusively with the given light, she finds interiors that can hardly be called anything other than painterly insofar, as they not only deal with questions of their own medium. These pictures speak of light and shadow, of space and surface, inside and outside, and of presence and absence.
But beyond such atmospheres, which are always subtle and never ostentatious, it are the details that refer to downright classic themes, especially in painting. And consequently to the blank space that holds each of Panyigay's series together.
Again and again, the motif of the grid appears, sometimes as a shadow, sometimes as a window cross or in the not yet occupied depot, one reads a painter's foil spread out on the floor as a photographic artistic study on the subject of materiality and baroque folds, or the depth of the space dissolves in the next instant in pure abstraction. Not much is missing and one would like to disappear from the world unnoticed in one of these rooms. The pictures, undoubtedly, will then come by themselves.
Cathy Jacob, Head of Presentations at Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
Publication by Galerie-Peter-Sillem for the exhibition Inland, 14.01.-25.02.2023, Frankfurt am Main, Germany
Photographing What’s Not There
‘All men’s miseries come from not being able to sit in a quiet room alone’ - Blaise Pascal
A deserted museum with empty rooms, blank walls, no visitors, silent and void before a renovation. I could imagine no sadder picture until Satijn Panyigay showed me with her lens that there were other ways of looking at it.
Satijn Panyigay looks for beauty in empty buildings: old ones full of history, or, on the contrary, new buildings with a whole future before them. She searches lovingly with her camera and tripod for what does not seem to be there at first, scouring spaces for places that tell her more. She takes the pictures with her best friend and sparring partner, an analogue medium format camera. With it, she captures images a careless passerby would easily miss. She confidently turns what appear to be bare empty spaces into places with a charge, places where promise awaits. These are still images of seemingly stationary places, until you look closer.
She has the photos printed on rag paper using an inkjet printer in a photo lab, then she decides which tint of handmade frame will make each work complete. These fixed materials represent careful choices in the post-production process and the method of presentation. Now the work is ready to go out into the world, to meet outsiders who are open to being guided by the artist's eye. The viewer naturally starts looking for landmarks, for clarity. The brain sets to work, following the direction of her gaze, trying to fill in, recognise, understand. Where is this, what shadow is that, where is the light coming from, where do those surfaces lead to, how deep is that space behind it? Gosh yes, what a beautiful place in fact, I’ve never looked at it like that before. And then time slows down and even seems to pause for a moment.
A new space is created, a space of silence, tranquillity, where the viewer can let go. A space for contemplation. It is a personal experience, but at the same time, one with universal value. For those who allow it, it can be healing. This is what Satijn Panyigay also seeks for herself while photographing: the meditative silence in buildings, allowing her to step out of everyday existence and recuperate. The process is complete when she can convey this to the viewer.
Satijn Panyigay approached the museum in Rotterdam in 2019 on the eve of its renovation. She asked if she could photograph the empty building left behind; the deserted rooms without art, without people. Perhaps she would be able to feel the traces left by artworks and those thousands of visitors over the many years. She did not want to photograph it in a documentary way, but rather to capture the atmosphere. The reverberation, the resonance of a crowded museum.
Months later, she returned, the first phase of the renovation was over and again she recorded it in her photographs. She also captured the museum's new building in mesmerising images. Photography of expectation in historical and future locations.
What a privilege to look through the eyes of an artist.
Renske Imkamp, art collector, on Galleryviewer
‘Ask an Art Collector… Renske Imkamp” (March 2021)
I love how Satijn Panyigay captures light. I have often been drawn to her work at exhibitions.
‘ABLAZE’ (March 2021)
CHARRED
The drawing-like quality of soot plays a game with the eye when you look at the series (Living) room by Satijn Panyigay (Nijmegen 1988). Are we looking at a drawing or a photo? The title of one of the works, Charcoal Drawing, again misleads you. But anyone who knows Satijn knows the answer. She is known for her photos of abandoned spaces, such as the empty rooms of the currently closed Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. She shot the series mentioned in the house of a young collector couple where a fire had raged: a tragic event with devastating consequences, but subsequently also the source for new art.
SUNLIGHT
About the moment the warm sunlight suddenly hit the charred walls, Satijn says: 'I saw the brightest white and the deepest, darkest black, captured in one image. The light and the dark need each other and cannot exist without each other. There is also something beautiful in all the misery, there is hope. ' She enhanced the drawing-like aspect of the images during her solo at Galerie Caroline O'Breen by treating the print and the surrounding wall with charcoal. It increased the game between the photo and the viewer's expectation that it was a drawing, but also brought the work closer to its origins; to the place where the images were created.
Merel van den Nieuwenhof, conservator Museum Jan Cunen/art historian, in Atelier Art Magazine
‘Ask an Art Collector… Ali Keles” (February 2021)
Satijn Panyigay graduated in 2010 from the HKU and often captures silences in spaces with a special context, in which light and dark form part of her shadow play. A photographer with an impressive eye for serenity, which was also evident in the series of photos she took of the vacant Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam.
Ali Keles, art collector, on Galleryviewer
‘A museum with empty walls’ (October 2020, excerpt from full article)
In the new gallery space of Galerie Caroline O'Breen, the solo exhibition "Twilight Zone, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen" by Satijn Panyigay will open on 24 October. In this exhibition, Panyigay takes us on an exploration of an empty Boijmans van Beuningen. She shows us that the museum is more than a series of white backdrops. How do the spaces in which we look at art influence the ways in which we experience art?
In 2000, American journalist Charles Jencks described in The Art Newspaper how museums, with their iconic buildings, super star artists and mega collections, are increasingly resembling cathedrals, in which art takes on an almost sacred function. But what is left of that when the walls are empty? In this exhibition in Galerie Caroline O'Breen, Satijn Panyigay invites us to look at the characteristic and recognisable empty spaces of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen. She was allowed to capture the museum in 2019, just before the museum closed its doors for seven years for a renovation. Boijmans has been located in the building for 85 years, so the walls breathe a certain history. Panyigay shows us a side of the museum that few people have seen: with bare walls that radiate almost something fragile because you know they shouldn't be empty. That creates a certain tension, because what is a museum without art? The photos are part of a larger project in which Panyigay captures famous Dutch contemporary art museums in this almost aimless period, in between exhibitions. She previously recorded the Kröller-Müller Museum this way. She shows us a museum without art and without visitors, in which the museum seems to lack function and perhaps even authority.
In her photos of Boijmans van Beuningen, you can only see a few traces of what was once on display: a single nail or discolouration on the wall. Panyigay asks you to allow your imagination to fill in the gaps. As in her other work, she proficiently plays with light and darkness, with a great sense of melancholy and, in Boijmans' case, perhaps even referring to the nostalgic feelings that people experience while seeing these photos, especially considering that a physical visit to the museum museum will be out of reach for so long. The background of the museum suddenly becomes the foreground. Panyigay says she is looking for a certain "presence" in this apparent emptiness, but what exactly is that presence, that essence, without art? Panyigay invites you to make your own interpretation.
Flor Linckens, cultural historian and freelancer, on Galleryviewer
Article about photography fair Haute Photographie (2020)
Silent environments with cause for contemplation: the work of Satijn Panyigay (1988) allows the viewer to calm down. At the same time, her photos have something mysterious and oppressive about them. It is the play of light, shadow and reflection that gives her photos an intriguing quality. Panyigay is fascinated by architectural spaces and plays with their perception. One of her latest projects is a documentation of a fire that reduced the living room of a young couple of art collectors to ashes. Her photos of this show the beauty of destruction.
RESIDENCE Magazine
De Volkskrant, October 2019
ENGLISH
Satijn Panyigay does not show the drama of the house fire,
but the silence afterwards
Afterwards you can of course say that the circle is complete. But that was not exactly what Sam van Rooij (29) and Francine de Ronde (29) were thinking about when, the day after the fire in their house, in January of this year, they decided to ask photographer Satijn Panyigay (31) if she might be interested in photographing their blackened living room. Maybe more so they thought: how can we turn this terrible event into something positive, something beautiful?
In addition, the white spots on the walls, where their artworks had previously hung, reminded them of a photo by Panyigay from the Behind Death's Door (2010) series. That photo, part of Van Rooijs art collection and now also affected by smoke and heat, shows the wall in a house on which a cupboard and objects that stood in the same place for years left their white silhouettes behind. For her graduation project at the Utrecht School of the Arts, Panyigay, a photographer with an even greater penchant for melancholy than photographers usually already have, set out with a company that clears out homes after the residents have died. In half-empty houses she searched for the insignificant remnants of human existence - a shower rack, a stain, a mirror, a crack in the wallpaper - that had suddenly become so much more meaningful after death.
It is therefore not surprising that after the fire in their house, Van Rooij and De Ronde involuntarily had to think about Panyigay's work. But the fact that the couple then gave the young photographer the opportunity to come and take pictures, because such a crazy empty house fits so well into her oeuvre, shows a wonderful flexibility of mind and a great love for art. The result of that collaboration can now be seen in gallery Caroline O'Breen in Amsterdam.
Panyigay did not focus on the drama of the fire, but on the silence afterwards. On the walls that had been painted matte black by the soot, and in the places where it could not reach: the seams, the corners, and behind the works of art. She kept taking photographs until the house had become a bit of hers too.
There is a beneficial rest in those photos. It is as if the damaged house is recuperating under Panyigay's attentive gaze. That calmness and concentration is all the more remarkable when you consider that the photographer got the job done within a few hours and in the midst of cleaning crews. And just when she was about to leave, she said at the opening of her exhibition, she had already packed her camera, the sun was coming out. It shone in through the window and lit up the black wall. That photo now forms the hopeful conclusion to the exhibition. In retrospect - yes, afterwards that circle is nicely closed.
Satijn Panyigay: (Living) room. Until 5/10 in gallery Caroline O'Breen, Amsterdam.
Sam van Rooij, art collector, on Galleryviewer
‘Ask an Art Collector.. Sam de Rooij’ (March 2020)
Satijn Panyigay and Bastiaan Woudt are my favourite photographers!
‘The struggle between the figurative and abstract’
Satijn Panyigay understands the art of expressing real emotions such as loneliness and fear, anticipation and resignation through an abstract play of light and dark. A light shining in a corner, a white spot on a wall, a doorway. It isn’t so much what you see, but it is the way it is presented through a specific use of light and dark that triggers the sensation of tension or stillness. The Afterglow series is a good example of a series of - almost - abstract photos in which the emptiness seems to emphasize the absence of people. Some places are reminiscent of a parking garage or a basement, but the abstraction almost invariably beats the figuration, the same way the atmosphere overrides the plot.
Melle Daamen on Galleryviewer
‘Klerkx buys art: five works of art under € 500’
I notice a diptych in the shop window of the Caroline O’Breen gallery. It concerns the photos "Ágak" (tree branches) & "Törülköző" (towel) from the Melankólia" series "by artist Satijn Panyigay, a true master in celebrating everyday objects and situations. The simplicity and nostalgia that burst from the photos are irresistible. I park my bike and while placing my hands between my forehead and the gallery window I try to get as close as possible to the images. I don't want to miss a detail. In Satijn's work I recognize the sensitivity to the beauty or the peculiarity of a particular moment, such as a sunbeam on a towel hanging to dry or a twig dying on a bed. Somehow, I tend to "read" her photos as a "mood board" that resonates with my emotional life. It makes me happy and quiet at the same time and I decide to go for a ginger tea in a tea room, right next to the gallery. As I stare outside, I think of the image of the pair of scissors on the bed. How beautifully life and death are depicted here in the combination of a twig, symbol of life and scissors that can make the difference between dead and alive, between then and now.
Manuela Klerkx, art agent, on Galleryviewer
Flor Linckens, cultural historian and freelancer, on Galleryviewer
‘Introspection in turbulent times’
Dutch photographer Satijn Panyigay teaches us to embrace melancholy and depression and to see the beauty of it. She photographed houses where a beloved pet has recently died, but also houses where a violent fire has just raged or other (often impersonal) spaces that radiate loneliness and sadness. Yet, these spaces tend to have an intense architectural beauty, which can have an almost abstract feel.
Sven Schlijper-Karssenberg, art collector, on Galleryviewer
‘Ask an Art Collector..Sven Schlijper-Karssenberg’
Who are your favourite artists?
Satijn Panyigay: We saw Satijn's work early on and fell in love with it. I bought a piece of work from her as an alternative engagement ring for my wife. We own several photos and artist books from Satijn, because she is one of the best photographers in the Netherlands.
Maarten Moll, het Parool (2017, Dutch text only)
Duidelijk is te zien dat er een klok aan de wand heeft gehangen. De tijd heeft om de afdruk heen het behang verkleurd. Straks is ook het behang weg, of overgeschilderd, en herinnert niets meer aan degene die er woonde. Het is een intrigerende foto, die iets onnoemelijk triests heeft. Zo zijn er meer in de serie Behind Death’s Door van de Nederlands-Hongaarse fotografe Satijn Panyigay.
Panyigay fotografeerde voor de serie uit 2011 in huizen van mensen die kort daarvoor waren overleden. Ze deed dat terwijl het huis door een bedrijf werd ontruimd. Omdat de overledene geen familie meer had, of omdat familie daar geen tijd voor had, of ze niet geconfronteerd wilden worden met sporen van iemand die er niet meer is.
En die sporen zijn er natuurlijk, dat laten de foto’s duidelijk zien. We zien een kast, half open. Een lege plank, een roede waar geen kleerhangers met overhemden of jurken meer aan hangen. Toch is het geen inkijkje in een leeg leven, want de kast zelf heeft ook geschiedenis. Waar is de kast gekocht? Wanneer? Heeft hij altijd op die plaatst gestaan? Wil niemand die kast? Waarom niet?
Een bed met een kaal matras, een foeilelijke stoel met diverse kussentjes. Muren waar lijsten aan hebben gehangen. We zullen nooit weten wie in dat bed lagen, hoe in die stoel is gezeten, waar de levenden naar keken.
Het zijn laatste sporen, geschiedenissen, verhalen. Misschien duikt de kast nog eens op in iemands herinnering, tot het voor altijd zal worden vergeten en wordt gewist door de tijd.
Wat zeggen deze alledaagse spullen en voorwerpen in een al bijna ontruimd huis? Het is een hele andere kijk op de dood die Panyigay laat zien. Doodsfotografie zonder lichamen.
Nathalie Maciesza, art historian and founder of de Kunstmeisjes
We see something very commonplace in this picture: a light where normally, advertising posters are displayed. By showing just the empty light, the photographer reveals a sense of beauty without the poster, creating a somewhat mysterious image. The strong contrast between light and dark really draws you towards the photograph. What you then see, can change by the day and depending on your mood. Perhaps one sees an unfulfilled, empty space. Or, as an alternative to ‘forced on us’ advertising, you might see a spotlight on your fantasy scene or a metaphorical light bulb shining through the dark. This photograph is fascinating in its simplicity - I would love to have it in my home.
Rick Berends, philosopher (Dutch text only)
Een aftandse koelvitrine met grauwe stukken vlees. De stellage licht op voor een benauwend hekwerk. Daarachter een donker niets, een zwart, oneindig gat. Een vreemd stilleven dat opdoemt waar het leven het toneel allang verlaten heeft. Met stillevens kan een kunstenaar zijn behendigheid oefenen en tonen. Maar in dit stilleven voel ik geen aanwezigheid van de maker. Het is verlaten. Leeg.
Maar ik word naar binnen getrokken. Het ruikt muf en voelt vochtig. Een zachte zoem bromt rond de stalen kast. Ik voel me vervreemd. Waar ben ik? Als ik me omdraai, zie ik dan iets? Is daar iets? Het beeld associeer ik met de wereld maar heeft zich daarvan los gemaakt. Het is een abstractie geworden. Staat op zichzelf. Een Ding an sich. Maar het wil dat niet verraden. Handgeschreven prijskaartjes wekken een suggestie van interactie en communicatie. Het hint naar menselijkheid, maar ik geloof het niet. Het is er een simulatie van.
Hoe langer ik kijk, hoe meer Darab hús me in haar greep houdt. Zoals het vleeswaar en de vitrine zijn losgezongen van een winkel waar mensen daadwerkelijk zorg droegen voor producten, waar geld over de toonbank ging en praatjes werden gemaakt, zo voel ik me meer en meer losgezongen van de persoon die dagelijks werkt, doet, liefheeft, eet, lacht.
De natuur is onverschillig. En hier zie je de mens en haar voortbrengselen als onderdeel van die onverschillige natuur. Een wezen dat doet en is op de automatische piloot zonder dit aan zichzelf te willen toegeven. Een wezen dat wil overleven, maar er ook iets van wil maken, ja zelfs zin zoekt. Tevergeefs. Maar dat baat niet, het is ok.
Vaak roept kunst emoties op. Het vertedert, maakt boos of ontroert. Maar soms is het fijn als ze je losweekt van gevoel. Want gevoel is tijdelijk. En soms wil je niet tijdelijk zijn. Soms wil je voelen dat er meer is dan dat. Dat er iets is dat daarvan losstaat. Het oneindige of het lege, het eeuwige, het onophoudelijke of het niets. Dat voelen doet wat ik het liefst heb dat kunst doet. Het troost.
Guus Sluiter, Brancheblad Uitvaartzorg, mei 2016, thema: jongeren
De dood boeit jongeren: muzikanten, kunstenaars, fotografen. Veel willen dodenprofessional worden. Ze zijn welkom, want fris en fruitig. Maar er ligt wel een keurslijf klaar. Hoe bevecht je je eigen plek? Satijn Panyigay (toen 21) fotografeerde huizen die worden leeggeruimd. Je ziet sporen van een voorbij leven. Een leeg rekje tegen de muur. Afdrukken van planken. Gaatjes van schroeven waar ooit foto’s hingen. De bewoner is verdwenen, herinneringen glippen door de kieren. Straks worden de gaatjes gevuld. Een nieuw behang, een nieuwe laag verf. Kindergeluiden vullen de ruimte. Zo jong – en dan zo’n werk maken. Kwaliteit kent geen leeftijd. Dáár is je plek.
Babs Bakels, Museum Tot Zover Amsterdam (2011)
The melancholic photoseries Behind Death’s Door shows the houses of recently deceased people of whom the relatives chose a specialized company to clear out their homes. Panyigay went along several times to investigate death more.
The photos are hermetic, there is no contact with the outside world, which results in an oppresive atmosphere of loneliness and nostalgia. Trivial objects are the last remains of a passed life. Traces are being removed, a preview of the fading of memories.
Eventually falling into absolute oblivion is the frightening fate of each individual. Eternity comes down to a constant movement of people who constantly die.