Nothing Up My Sleeve examines a recurring dynamic of illusion and manipulation at Landgoed De Paltz. The site-specific installation is a response to this year’s edition theme, “Date the Estate,” presented by the Paltz Biënnale in Soest (NL), an inquiry into our contemporary and past relationship with the estate and its grounds.

The site’s history is defined by a legacy of staging: Moving from romanticized, man-made follies like a simulated waterfall, to the strategic military camouflage deployed during World War II, and now to the occurrence of the biennial art event. The installation transforms the terrain into a hybrid of a stage and a camp, joining the site’s theatrical lineage. A play between revealing and concealing, utilizing camouflage tarps draped like theatre curtains, blank staring silicone masks, a in pollen covered stage, and peculiar warning sirens shaped like ears, the work creates an uncanny atmosphere where the genuine and the fabricated blur.