Marlie Mul

Mul’s objects have organic qualities. They are like ephemeral entities, but ones aware of their figurative tendencies and their own artificiality. The artist often employs materials that allude to—in subtle, occasionally disturbing ways—corporeal elements such as bones, hair, skin, or bodily fluids. The emphasis on inconspicuous, everyday objects is not a casual gesture, but arises from an interest in “small variances, in transformations and forms of resistance in socially coded space.” Mul’s sculptures are like quiet commentaries on strategies of social exchange.

For the exhibition Das Budget at Kunsthaus Glarus, she has created a new series of works that center on folding as an act and metaphor—developed from earlier investigations into the structure and logic of folding in her work series Unnamed Charms, in which compact, tightly folded, bijou-like objects made of silicon are combined with hair and small plastic bones. In the current works, flat, custom-colored pieces of silicone are layered and folded, pierced by metal rods, and held together by screws. By altering only a few parameters such as size and opacity, the objects express a connection between graphic and sculptural qualities.

The modernist exhibition space—conceived in the 1950s for the presentation of paintings, sculptures, and graphic artworks under “ideal” conditions—provides an active counterpart for Mul’s works. Her objects enter into a dialogue with materials and techniques that also gained importance in the 1950s—including plastics, silicones, and casting and curing processes. The metal elements in her works are reminiscent of orthopedic screws and tools used to align and stabilize the body. While the soft silicone forms evoke physical associations, the metal elements take on a structuring, almost corrective role.

The exhibition title, Das Budget, alludes to a variety of meanings. It might refer to restrictions, to the general relationship between money and efficiency, or to a shortage—that soon you might have to “tighten your belt.” On the other hand, in French etymology, the word “budget” is derived from the words bouge (travel bag) and bougette (small leather bag for money). The objects themselves, in the manner of their making, forge a link to this opened-up realm of associations. Through the bunching, layering, and folding of material that is held in shape, a certain tension is made evident in the works. A constellation emerges to be viewed in series, in which accumulated energy held in place is examined as a spatial configuration.

Marlie Mul (b. 1980, Netherlands, lives and works in Brussels) studied fashion and textile design, fine art, and architectural history and theory. Her practice moves between sculpture, print, painting, fashion, graphic design, education, text, distribution, experiments with branding, and the organisation of various platforms, such as her projects Hermany and PMS. Her work has been shown most recently at Les Bains Douches, Alençon, 243 Luz, Margate, and Laurenz, Vienna (2025); Rob Tufnell Gallery, London, Gaylord Fine Arts, Los Angeles, and FRAC, Alsace (2024); Croy Nielsen, Vienna, Flat Time House, London, and Wiels, Brussels (2022); MACRO – Museum of Contemporary Art, Rome (2021); Ujazdowski Castle Centre for Contemporary Art, Warsaw (2020); FRAC Lorraine, Metz and Mostyn, Llandudno (2018); Kunsthalle Wien (2023 and 2016), Berlin Biennale (2016); Swiss Institute, New York, Kunsthalle Bern and Witte de With, Rotterdam (2015); Sculpture Center, New York, Taipei Fine Arts Museum, ICA London, Fridericianum Kassel, and Ullens Center for Contemporary Art, Peking (2014); and White Columns, New York (2012). Working in art education alongside her practice, she currently heads the Master of Fine Arts at KASK in Ghent and previously lead the MFA programme at HEAD in Geneva.

An interview brochure with a conversation between Marlie Mul and Melanie Ohnemus will be published for the exhibition.

Curated by Melanie Ohnemus