Niels Nicola Pauls

Some things we loved as children do not disappear; they wait. Boxed, shelved and half-forgotten they keep the shape of the hours we once gave them. Some also begin to carry a price. Residual Protodermis follows the quiet inflation around Bionicle, a Lego theme discontinued in 2023, whose sets now steadily climb in value on resale platforms. Often bought back by those who first outgrew them. 

Through sculptures, scaled and reworked from the toys' own parts, and prices gathered across months of sales, the work treats this appreciation as a form of worth, where sentiment, having outlasted play, returns as value. What it traces is worth as something unfixed and accumulating — held by some, sold by others.  

Niels Nicola is a Dutch artist with a background in product design. He works across software, sculpture, and designed artifacts, interested in the invisible structures of technology, data, internet culture, and networked life. Moving between new media art, data visualization, and poetry, his practice translates these systems into intimate forms — things to read, hold, experience, or notice, bringing a personal and poetic approach to questions of nostalgia, scarcity, language, and perception. 

Find Niels Pauls' work during ArtEZ finals 2026, as part of You've Reached the Center, Please Hold exhibition, at Oude Kraan 26, Arnhem, Design Art Technology (DAT)