Camouflage Means the Landscape Was Already Watching You

Katharina Busl’s Nothing Up My Sleeve at Paltz Biënnale Soest

At Landgoed De Paltz, a nineteenth-century estate on the Utrechtse Heuvelrug that opens its grounds to the public only once every two years, Katharina Busl builds a theater between the pines that nobody formally invited.

Katharina Busl , Nothing Up My Sleeve , 2026, installation view, PaltzBiënnale, Landgoed De Paltz, Soest. Courtesy the artist and PaltzBiënnale. Photo: Robin Meyer.

The curtains are agricultural plastic printed in military camouflage, gathered into theatrical swags and tied to the trunks. The stage holds three metal lattice trusses from which large sculptural forms are suspended, each sitting somewhere between a human ear, a speaker horn, and a flower.

Beneath the draped table, silicone face forms press through the fabric from underneath.

Nothing Up My Sleeve

Artist: Katharina Busl

Exhibition: Nothing Up My Sleeve

Venue:

PaltzBiënnale / Landgoed De Paltz

City: Soest, Netherlands

Dates: May 9, 2026 – June 21, 2026

Hours: Saturday & Sunday, 11:00–18:00

Address: Paltz 3, Soest (Entrance: Heezerspoor Westzijde)

Curators: Cecilia Rebergen, Veronique Hoedemakers

Photography: Robin Meyer

Image Courtesy: Courtesy the artist and PaltzBiënnale

Contact: info@paltzbiennale.nl

Nothing Up My Sleeve (2026) by Katharina Busl at Paltz Biënnale

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.

Katharina Busl , Nothing Up My Sleeve , 2026, detail, Paltz Biënnale , Landgoed De Paltz, Soest. Courtesy the artist and Paltz Biënnale. Photo: Robin Meyer.Katharina Busl, Nothing Up My Sleeve , 2026, detail, Paltz Biënnale, Landgoed De Paltz, Soest. Courtesy the artist and Paltz Biënnale. Photo: Robin Meyer.Katharina Busl, Nothing Up My Sleeve , 2026, installation view, Paltz Biënnale , Landgoed De Paltz, Soest. Courtesy the artist and Paltz Biënnale. Photo: Robin Meyer.

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 stage covered in pollen, and peculiar warning sirens shaped like ears, the work creates an uncanny atmosphere where the genuine and the fabricated blur.

Katharina Busl, Nothing Up My Sleeve , 2026, installation view, Paltz Biënnale, Landgoed De Paltz, Soest. Courtesy the artist and Paltz Biënnale. Photo: Robin Meyer.Katharina Busl, Nothing Up My Sleeve , 2026, installation view, Paltz Biënnale, Landgoed De Paltz, Soest. Courtesy the artist and Paltz Biënnale. Photo: Robin Meyer.

The camouflage does not hide anything from the forest. The installation announces itself plainly from the path, curtains looped to trunks, the ear-forms catching grey light, the table pressing small faces through its own draping.

What the work conceals is more structural, a history of managed, romanticized, and at times militarized landscape, in which the aesthetic of nature has always required a director. Busl's theater is uncanny because it makes that management visible, and then declines to dismantle it. The curtains remain tied to the trees. What they frame keeps opening.

Instagram Katharina Busl Paltzbiennale on Instagram

Katharina Busl, Nothing Up My Sleeve , 2026, installation view, Paltz Biënnale, Landgoed De Paltz, Soest. Courtesy the artist and PaltzBiënnale. Photo: Robin Meyer.

About Catapult Contemporary - Art Platform Submission

This is a exhibition review published by Catapult — an independent editorial platform for contemporary art, based in Vienna. We publish exhibition reviews, artist features, interviews, and critical context, with a focus on emerging and mid-career practices from Europe and beyond. catapult.art

Want to be featured? Submit your work →

More Readings

Featured

Lisa Klinger: Painting the Body as System

Read More

Exhibition

Boglárka Dankó: Heresy in the Small Hours

Read More

Interview

Tom Król on The Visible Trace of the Invisible Map

Read More