Upon entering Kristof Santy’s spacious workspace or his family home in Roeselare, Belgium, there is a sense of eagerness and thirst for knowledge that radiates from the objects scattered through the rooms and corridors. Besides the essential painting materials and hardware, there is a large bookshelf filled to the brim with a variety of titles, as well as a vast collection of random possessions, vintage tools, figurines, souvenirs, and trinkets that indicate the artist’s inquisitive and ever curious mind. It was that aspect of his character that instantly connected with the wunderkammer exhibit at Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna, during his visit to the city in 2021. Presenting a compact and focused collection of items that by profound criteria earned a greater significance outside their everyday purpose or meaning, the presentation resonated with his own idea of valuing the material objects for qualities beyond their inherent purpose. Around the same time, the artist visited the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and was particularly intrigued by the cabinet exhibiting antique keys and locks. Seeing everyday tools we all carry in our pockets, presented as a precious museum relic, again resonated with Santy’s interest in exploring the common object’s forms and transforming it into a distinguished, formal motif on a picture plane.   (…)
(Sasha Bogojev, 2021)