Renée van Oploo
info@reneevanoploo.nl
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INSTALLATIONS & ART
RESARCH, WORKSHOPS & WRITINGS
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BIO
I am a Dutch artist whose practice brings together visual production and artistic research. Through installations, essays, and collective projects, I explore contemporary dilemmas and investigate a wide range of artistic approaches, with a strong focus on ethics, collectivity, and shared experience.
Alongside my practice, I teach in the Contemporary Art and Photography, Film & the Digital programmes at St. Joost School of Art & Design. I am also a researcher at the Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT), affiliated with the Research Group Cultural and Creative Industries.
In addition, I’m part of YAFF, Young Artists Feed Forward, a collective that supports emerging artistic voices. Projects (selection)
Pan Colon(s)
Created
at EKWC
(2025)
With Pan
Colon(s) I seek a personal, experimental reflection on a specific part of
the body: the colon. This organ marks the final stage where everything the body
has absorbed leaves as waste. The colon is an organ we feel; it can cramp,
rumble, behave unpredictably or fall ill.
View project
Bottles
Created
at EKWC with support from Cultuurfonds and PPO
(2025)
In a world where we are constantly yearning for the next big thing, we are tempted into self-numbing. The porcelain bottles symbolise these addictions: for some it is alcohol, for others work, and for yet others running.
View project
Thinking Landscape #3
Little Flake, Little Hair, Little Booger
(2024)
The installation emerged from a personal experience: when discarding my very first
vacuum cleaner, I realised it had collected dust particles from everyone I
cared for. This raised a broader philosophical question: when does something
that was once part of us become considered dirty?
View project
A Moral Anatomy of an Artichoke
(2023)
For A
Moral Anatomy of an Artichoke, I translated a theoretical concept,
hospitality, into visual metaphors. This quilt is based on a self-authored
essay and serves as a symbolic representation of the moral dilemmas discussed
therein. The work centres on the question: what role does the human play in
welcoming the other?
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Living Statistics #7
Fixed Fiction
(2023)
On what
principles do we build a society? This project presents research into the
influence that the ethical ambitions of the urban environment have on its
inhabitants. Specialists, urban planners, and residents of Zoetermeer were
invited to contribute and reflect on what we truly desire to feel at home.
View project
Border of Europe
1:5000, 864 grams
(2021)
The border is embroidered on 12 metres of fabric. At a scale of 1:5000, the outline of Europe measures roughly 53,000 kilometres. While embroidering the border I reflected on what this line represents. It marks two sides, but does it truly divide a person? In this work all countries are joined together.
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The Blame Game
Who’s to Blame?!
(2020)
Global
climate change is an ever more significant factor in our lives. Glaciers are
shrinking, animal species face extinction, and increasingly violent storms rage
across land and sea.
But who is
responsible? Or what is responsible? And most importantly, where can we place
the blame? In this game, multiple perspectives are combined to explore these
abstract questions. It is your task to solve the question “Who’s to blame?!” within the fictional Blame.inc office.
View project
Fundament
(2020)
This
artwork is inspired by the transformation and spatial development of a natural
area near Vessem. In this process, the river has been restored to a meandering
course after being straightened since the 1970s due to intensive agriculture,
which disrupted the natural landscape. The Fundament represents human
impact on the landscape.
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I am Water
(2018)
I
am Water consists of multiple
works, including a 3D animation of a flowing river — a metaphor for the
continuous flow of money and value. Inspired by De Nederlandsche Bank (DNB), it
symbolises how we are swept along by intangible structures, ranging from
financial systems to technological progress.
View project
Song for the Earth
(2018)
For
this installation, I composed a song that was performed during the exhibition
opening by three men dressed in costumes inspired by a still from a 3D
animation, A State of Nature. In the song, humanity offers an apology
for taking nature for granted, viewing it solely as a resource for human use.
View project
Salt of the Earth
(2017)
For the theme of Arnhem’s Open Monument Day, Farmers, Citizens and Country Folk, I’ve created an installation that explores existential questions tied to the contemporary human condition.
The Free Catholic Church is a place where people come together. Through that symbolism, my work welcomes you in. The installation, titled The Salt Of The Earth, refers to an old English saying. It’s built up in three layers.
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Art Is Our Only Hope
(2017)How
do we learn to live with technological progress while our bodies remain bound
to mortality? My work is a philosophical-essayistic expression of a longing for
nature, but also of the irreversible technological conditions that humanity
faces. The installation is a personal quest to find my place on this earth.
View project
© Renée van Oploo 2025