Thirty-six Years on the Move / aka Route 36 by Ted Noten

Artist list

Ted Noten

The exhibition begins in 1984 and then jumps to 1990, when Ted graduated and began his career.

The exhibition takes place at Gallery Marzee — the very place where the artist first presented his work. It is designed as a “box city,” or more precisely, a “box timeline.” Visitors walk alongside a layered accumulation of boxes forming a path that stretches from before 1990 to the present. At the beginning of the exhibition, you will see a suitcase that has never been shown before, containing pieces that Noten created at the very start of his career with the help of a street jewelry vendor on a beach in Greece.

An accompanying art book will also be released. It brings together stories — arranged as a timeline — that may or may not directly relate to the works on view, but always reflect specific moments in time, revealing Noten’s thoughts, hopes, principles, and struggles. It is a rather personal book, in which Ted speaks in the first person about events from his life that accompanied different stages of his career, the stories behind particular pieces, and his travels — all presented in a brief, light, and often humorous manner. It feels as though you are sitting in Noten’s studio, listening to his stories — only here, you are reading and looking. The idea for the book emerged from Ted’s close collaboration with Into Niilo, his assistant. Through their constant communication and time spent together in the workshop, Into came up with the concept of creating a book that would bring together Ted’s personal and professional stories in one place and share previously unknown aspects of his life with the audience. The metaphorical illustrations, pop culture references, and the visual interpretation of Ted’s many personalities are all Into’s work. Elena Karpilova wrote the foreword and also contributed a few ideas to the book.

The book will be available worldwide. Both in the exhibition and in the book, you will encounter different facets of Ted at various stages of his life: Ted the storyteller, Ted the trickster, Ted the archaeologist (which is what he dreamed of becoming as a child!).


Opening on Saturday, 18 April 2025 at 4 pm.