Release, Hold, Let Go
Maika Garnica
‘The ceramic bodies become proxies for our own, creating clouds of warmth that might blur the boundary between the object and the body, between what gives warmth and what receives it.’
In Release, Hold, Let Go a collection of ceramic sculptures connected to a warm water source invites you to come closer. For this new work, visual and sound artist Maika Garnica departs from several elements deeply familiar to her — clay, water, sound — to further develop them into an entirely new direction. Through the addition of heat and a striking increase in scale, Garnica’s ceramic sculptures no longer stand before us as objects, but as bodies beside us. They exert a quiet pull and ask: come closer.
What connects us when matter carries, circulates, and releases heat? Can we also understand our own bodies, coursing with the same fluid at a comparable temperature, as vessels for warmth? We, too, are constantly giving off heat—usually unnoticed and invisible, but sometimes briefly perceptible in the cold winter air, sometimes noticed and felt when another being is nearby, barely or more intensely touching one another.
Like ours, these fragile bodies exchange heat, but according to a different rhythm: made of clay, they warm up slowly and retain heat longer. Garnica’s sculptures remind us that presence is not only seen, but—like sound—also felt. Can you handle them with care? Do you feel their warmth penetrating your skin? Will you, slowly, warm them in turn with your body? And through them, all the others who come closer?
Conceptredacteur tekst: Lina Ejdaa
Courtesy of the artist and Werktank
A production of Werktank.
Co-produced by STUK, House for Dance, Image & Sound in the context of Grind Grind Grind, Release. An Exhibition as a Massage (2026)
This work would not exist without the incredible support of Werktank and STUK!
and the many helping hands that contributed throughout the production process.
Production support by:
Wim Beelen — plumbing and technical installation
Rob Ruimers — ceramic technical advice and production
Aiko Devriendt — sound recording and composition
Andrea Bos — textile design and production
Heartwarming thanks to Joost Elschot, Jan Van den Bosch, Céline Mathieu, and Owen Seldeslachts.
Maika Garnica
°1992, Dendermonde, Belgium
Maika Garnica is a visual and sound artist who lives and works in Antwerp, Belgium. Central in her practice is the relationship between the environment, the spectator and the artist. She often applies prototypes to comprehend the complex relation between form and matter while instigating the position of the body as a vehicle for social connections. Through various contextual variations the nature of the work shifts spontaneously from sculptures, utilitarian objects to sound installations.
Her work is being shown both nationally and internationally, most recently in a.o. at UMACO, Utah; Wasserspeicher, Berlin; QO2 in Brussels; C-Mine Genk; Memento Festival Kortrijk, EMPAC, Troy (NY); Triennale Art & Industrie, Dunkirk and Z33, Hasselt. Garnica holds a Master of Fine arts - Sculpture from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts/Antwerp (2015) and a Master of Research in Art and Design from the St. Lukas School of Arts/Antwerp (2016).
Photo: Maika Garnica © Eva Donckers