The series The Studio in the Bonnefanten provides a stage for small scale solo presentations on which artists may present recent developments in their work.

The Studio #8:
Caroline Sarneel

Caroline Sarneel (Geleen, 1992) lives in Maastricht and works in Beek. She expresses herself mainly in painting and analogue photography. In the summer of 2022, she completed her bachelor's degree in autonomous visual arts at the Maastricht Institute of Arts. Subsequently, the fourth edition of the Limburg Visual Arts Stipendium was awarded to her. Through this, she obtained a six-month residency spot at the Jan van Eyck Academy and a The Studio presentation at the Bonnefanten.

Sarneel is fascinated by the relationship between puny humans and grand nature, which reaches from Earth to the infinite cosmos. She links foresting with space travel: in both, seclusion is central. In the aloneness (NL: alleenschap), Sarneel finds the core of her humanity. That sense of belonging to an all-encompassing nothingness is what she looks for when she is creating. She does not seek explanations but rather is guided by the experience of mystery and not-knowing.

"Ideally, my works need no explanation. In another case, I choose to limit this because words can never achieve what the work itself can tell. I try to be open to my natural environment in my working method, that of aloneness - not to be confused with loneliness, but to be understood as a secluded state of being that offers no torment, but joy and space for clear reflection."