Assembly, 2022       
Sculpture on the facade of ZK/U        

During a residency at ZK/U Berlin (Centre for Arts and Urbanistics) two new works were developed that respond to the site of ZKU in its state of transformation. During his working period, Smits explored the (de)construction of the building, with an interest in tracing the journeys of the materials used. His research has taken him to discover origins ranging from Berlin and China to Ukraine. As well as to recognise the different techniques and materials used over time, from the building’s advent as a train station in 1890 to its more recent renovation in 2012. During this time, he became more interested in the act of investigation itself, dealing with questions that proved difficult to uncover.  

Assembly recuperates and brings together disparate materials collected from ZKU, and which represent each phase of the building's history. Such includes, amongst others, metal beams formerly constituting rail tracks; metal piping from beneath the former loading dock; wood from the former roof, re-used to reinforce concrete molds; and commonplace plastic sheets, used to pour concrete in the fabrication of the new building. Here, Smits’ approaches artmaking as a thinking space, to explore, test, create, question, and play with materials and the distinct information and intelligence they introduce. The work is installed as a permanent installation on the façade of the building atop a metal beam used to support the roof of the building.