The Studio #10: Eline Kersten

The Studio #10 revolves around Eline Kersten (1994, Maastricht – Switzerland).

On view: 6 December 2025 to 3 May 2026
Curator: Celien Govaerts

The Studio #10 revolves around Eline Kersten (1994, Maastricht – Switzerland). Kersten invites us to take a different look at the rapidly changing nature around us. Her solo presentation was compiled as part of the LBK scholarship (Limburg Beeldende Kunst Stipendium). It marks the end of her residency at the Jan van Eyck Academy, which was also part of the scholarship.

About the artist

Eline Kersten is a talented and versatile artist with roots in Limburg. She took a Bachelor in Fine Arts at the art academy in Maastricht, after which she gained a Master in Curating from Goldsmiths, University of London. She currently lives in Switzerland. She visualises stories about disappearing landscapes; analysing and shedding light on how we relate as people to the changing world around us. Take, for example, melting glaciers and wildfires. These are important themes in a world where climate change is high on the agenda.

Eline Kersten’s solo presentation links up well with Bonnefanten’s engaged programming. Climate is high on the social and political agenda and concerns all of us.

Glass time capsules

At the heart of the presentation are hand blown glass sculptures (Timekeepers, 2024-2025). These are filled with melted glacier water from Greenland and Antarctica, which is over a hundred thousand years old. The work was created in dialogue with glaciologist Michaela Mühl. Kersten shares her amazement at the process through which changing ice landscapes are investigated. “Scientists all over the world make huge efforts to drill ice core samples for research. But when the ice has melted and turned into water, it’s no longer of any value to them", says Kersten. Where science stops, the artist’s imagination takes off. And Kersten makes that visible to us all.

Fire as both destroyer and creator

Kersten also explores the power of fire in landscapes. She does so in the series of silk screens All that remains (2025) and the sculpture Life, by any other name (2025). The works are made from charcoal and charred wood, which she collected in former wildfire areas at Mechelse Heide (Belgium), Drunen (the Netherlands), and Wolfsschlucht and Bitsch (Switzerland). Charcoal is usually regarded as dead material, but in Kersten’s work it seems to be alive.

Limburg Beeldende Kunst Stipendium

Eline Kersten is the sixth recipient of the Limburg Beeldende Kunst Stipendium, which was set up by the Province of Limburg in 2018. The scholarship comprises a grant, a solo presentation in The Studio at the Bonnefanten and a six-month working period at the Jan van Eyck Academy, culminating in participation in the Open Studios. This encourages artists from Limburg and brings their work to the attention of a wider public.

The Studio #10 has received support from the Province of Limburg, the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, the VriendenLoterij and GAVE Maastricht Creative Talents Fund.

Note for the press:
Private event 6 December (3:00 - 4:00 pm): artist talk with the artist.
For more information and visual material, please contact Joëlle Stijnen through pressoffice@bonnefanten.nl or on
+31 6 13 21 36 76.

Header: Radek Grabowski, Photo of a cross section of a piece of charcoal from a beech tree, viewed under dark field light at 100 x magnification, 2025. Photo Radek Grabowski (archeobotanist/anthracologist).