Twisted Fairy Tales

In the heart of Utrecht, a world emerges where fairy tales take an unexpected turn. For the Wijkservicecentrum Kanaleneiland, Margriet van Breevoort designed her first public artwork: Twisted Fairy Tales. Mothership was responsible for the execution, project management, and acted as curator of the artwork.

The bronze sculptures depict familiar characters such as Pinocchio, Little Red Riding Hood, the frog, the rabbit, and Nils Holgersson — but not quite as you know them. They appear just a little less innocent, as if they’ve stepped straight out of an alternate reality. Nils Holgersson even glides on a swan through a window frame, seemingly arriving from another dimension.

With this work, Van Breevoort reveals her talent for defamiliarizing the familiar — a playful and subtly unsettling take on nostalgia. The sculptures invite passersby to wonder, converse, and reflect on how we perceive and reinterpret classic tales.