
The bear prefers to remain silent
5 September – 3 October 2026.
Opening on Saturday the 5th of September
Maria Kley
Justus de Rode
Vincent Verhoef
Wild animals are similar to human beings, only more sacred.
Hunting is pure. Wild animals love people who are pure.
How could I hunt, if before it I had not done a drawing?
The biggest danger in life is that the food of humans is all made of souls.
The soul of the bear is a miniature bear that is found in its head.
The bear can talk, but prefers to remain silent.
Those who talk to the bear, calling it by name, make it gentle and harmless.
An inept man who sacrifices takes more wild animals than an able hunter who doesn’t sacrifice.
Every hunt is a hunt for souls.
(from The Celestial Hunter by Roberto Calasso)
The group exhibition ‘the bear prefers to remain silent’ consists of works by Maria Kley, Justus de Rode and Vincent Verhoef. The exhibition proposes the notion of the cave, or what lies underground, as a frame of reference. Here, the cave is understood as both archive and shelter, linking personal histories to a larger temporal realm.