De Engel van Tilburg

The niche seems to have been created specially for this small sculpture. Initially, however, a water faucet could be found at this spot, which is a remnant of the wool-spinning mill that was housed in this building. Despite the angel’s solid appearance, it is actually made of a very light material: pur foam. Birza is fond of employing unusual materials such as  hubcaps, blinkers, blankets and bath mats. He also likes to play around with norms and values, paying little heed to the rules imposed by the art world. Birza’s oeuvre is therefore full of contradictions: order that is chaos, spirituality that is sensuality, the exalted as the banal. The angel is no exception to this, as it suggests a religious, sublime motif, but has been carved from ordinary construction material.