Jelmer Konjo is a graduate of the Willem de Kooning Academy of Art, he lives and works in Rotterdam. He researches and observes how we deal with the norm of ‘being an adult’ in our daily lives and what this means for us. An important principle in his work is the open way of looking, investigating and making mistakes during our childhood. This way of seeing and learning can change or even disappear as we grow older. We end up in a rut in which everything has to be functional and has to deliver results.

Jelmer sees his work as a playful and layered way to break out of this rut ​​and to make us aware of the value of playfulness and imagination in our lives. This results for example in the investigation of the function and form of playground equipment, where Konjo plays with risks and imagery and investigates how changing the context influences the experience of the work. He sees his way of working as one big game in which making mistakes, starting over and working with unconventional materials are an important part of his working process.