Max Schulze
Belvedere
7 March – 23 March

Belvedere – Max Schulze

From March 7 to March, 2025, the project space What Art Can Do in the Jordaan presents the solo exhibition Belvedere by Max Schulze (1994). Through paintings, text, and mixed media, Schulze explores the estrangement of the familiar and the ways in which our well-being and living spaces influence each other.

With a collection of largely new works, Belvedere examines the boundaries of what we call home. In abandoned rooms and silent moments, vulnerability is present, while restless walks and inward glances—through windows, into rooms full of stories—reveal not only unease but also hope. Schulze’s works oscillate between introspection and observation, depicting a world that is both recognizable and alienating.

The term belvedere originates from Italian, where bel means “beautiful” and vedere means “to see.” It refers to an architectural structure—often a tower, dome, or pavilion—designed to offer a panoramic view. The belvedere has a long history, from Nero’s palace to the Château de Versailles, and serves a dual role: it is a place of beauty and contemplation, but also of distance. The landscape is viewed and admired but not directly experienced. This tension between connection and alienation forms the starting point for Schulze’s work.

Belvedere does not solely refer to a physical place but also to an internal vantage point—a mental space where memories and thoughts pass by like landscapes, sometimes familiar, sometimes elusive. Grief, powerlessness, and trauma can turn a home into an unfamiliar space, a body into a shell, and a mind into a labyrinth where past and present intertwine. Schulze’s work reveals not only the visible traces people leave in their surroundings but also the invisible imprints within ourselves: the echoes of what has been and the question of where we still belong.

Max Schulze (1994) works in various media—primarily painting, but also text, mixed media, and video. He graduated from the Utrecht School of the Arts (HKU) in 2016 and has lived and worked in Amsterdam ever since. He was an Artist in Residence at WOW Amsterdam and participated in De Torenkamer, a residency program by NPO Radio 1. His work has been exhibited at the Amsterdam Public Library, Kunsthal Kloof (Utrecht), and De Hallen (Amsterdam), and is part of the permanent collection of the Museum van de Geest – Dolhuys (Haarlem).

A publication of the same name, featuring poems, collages, photographs, and prints of Schulze’s work, will accompany the exhibition.