Renée van Oploo
Fine artist & researcher
info@reneevanoploo.nl
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INSTALLATIONS & ART
RESARCH, WORKSHOPS & WRITINGS
ANIMATED PROJECTS
ARCHIVE
CV
BIO
I am a visual artist, lecturer and researcher. I teach in the Art & Research programme (since 2021) and Photography, Film & the Digital (since 2023) at St. Joost School of Art & Design, and conduct research at the Centre of Applied Research for Art, Design and Technology (CARADT). I am also a member of the art collective YAFF and the art alliance The Long Tail of Art.
My artistic practice centres on the relationship between art, shared experience and ethical reflection. Through installations, essays, workshops and collaborative projects, I develop situations in which artistic practice creates space for collective inquiry into current dilemmas in art, education and society, and the assumptions and reflexes that shape them. I hold a background in Fine Arts (cum laude, St. Joost School of Art & Design) and Applied Ethics (MA, Utrecht University).
Research, writings & workshops
Artistic Research
A Head Massage Tool or a Crowbar?
Toolbox for the Evaluation of Art in Public Spaces
Keywords:
public space, art, ambition, impact, agonism, participation
ABSTRACT In this
research project, I present an open and accessible approach to analysing art in
public space. It introduces a toolbox for evaluating both the artist’s ambition
and the artwork’s impact. I use this research to pose a central question: can
such a toolbox serve as a valuable resource for assessing the ambitions and
effects of artworks in public space? Art often engages with overwhelmingly
complex issues such as world peace, climate change, and inclusivity, making it
essential to understand how ideology translates into tangible impact. To
address this, I’ve filled the toolbox with various tools and utilities, whose
applicability I test through case studies that explore the artworks’ ambition
and impact: does the artwork function as a crowbar, a head massage tool, a
noticeboard, or a workbench? In doing so, I try to find a constructive way to
navigate dilemmas surrounding public art, including the roles of commissioning,
disengagement, and participation.
This research is published @ http://ruukku-journal.fi/en
Read this research here
Article
Imagining Uncertainty
Beyond Measurable Futures
2026
Paper presented at thePIONEER Alliance Conference
Download PDF (PDF)
Keywords: public art; uncertainty; common good; imagination; urban collaboration
ABSTRACT This article examines public art as a practice that sustains uncertainty
and difference over time and keeps collective imagination in motion.
Drawing on two case studies, Draaiend Huis by John Körmeling in Tilburg and the Modellprojekt Haus der Statistik in Berlin, the article shows how artistic interventions open spaces in
which questions of space and ownership are not settled and
responsibility remains subject to ongoing negotiation.Rather than approaching public art as a means of producing consensus or
clearly measurable outcomes, the article understands artistic practice
as a way of working through friction and hesitation, allowing
disagreement to persist. In Tilburg, a recurring moment of disruption
repeatedly reactivates public debate, while in Berlin an artistic
intervention gradually develops into a long-term collaborative
experiment around shared use and collective ownership.Read together, the cases show how public art operates not primarily as
an object or a message but as a sustained practice that keeps situations
of negotiation and imagination open. The article argues that the value
of public art lies in its ability to endure as an open-ended process,
maintaining contested spaces in which common futures can be imagined
without being fixed in advance.
Article
Subverting “Creative Placemaking:”
How a Berlin Art Stunt Turned into a Model for Democratic Urban Development
by Sebastian Olma and Renée van Oploo
December 16th, 2025
Published in Institute of Network Cultures – Longform
ABSTRACT This article examines whether creative placemaking can be redefined
as a democratic and common-good–oriented form of urban development. In
many contemporary policy contexts, creative placemaking mobilises art
and culture as tools for urban regeneration, city branding and real
estate development, often contributing to gentrification and
displacement. Against this background, the article analyses the Haus der
Statistik project in Berlin as an alternative approach. The project
originated in 2015 with an artistic intervention by the collective
Allianz bedrohter Berliner Atelierhäuser (AbBA), which drew attention to
the vacancy of a large building complex near Alexanderplatz. What began
as a performative protest gradually developed into a large-scale
redevelopment process involving artists, activists, civil society
organisations and municipal institutions.
The case study explores how this initiative evolved into a Public-Civic
Partnership, a governance model that brings public authorities and civic
actors together in the co-production of urban space. Through
participatory planning processes, experimental temporary uses and
collaborative decision-making, the project seeks to develop affordable
housing, cultural spaces, social infrastructure and public services
within a shared framework oriented toward the common good.
The analysis suggests that the Haus der Statistik project demonstrates
how artistic activism can move beyond the instrumental role often
assigned to artists in neoliberal urban development. Instead, artistic
practices can contribute to participatory forms of city-making that
foreground collective responsibility, social infrastructure and
long-term civic engagement. At the same time, the project remains
fragile due to institutional tensions, political shifts and the
difficulty of sustaining democratic participation over extended periods.
The case nevertheless illustrates how creative placemaking might be
reimagined as a practice of collaborative urban development grounded in
affordability, participation and the circulation of urban resources.
Workshop
Welcome to the Weird & Dirty
Workshop in collaboration with Rob Leijdekkers, Sebastian Olma
A subversive design workshop that invited participants to embrace creative mess, alter egos, and material disruption. Through role-playing and hands-on making with second-hand clothing, participants explored alternative ways of creating by customising, deconstructing, and transforming garments. The workshop challenged conventional design processes and encouraged experimentation with hybrid and transdisciplinary methods, fostering new perspectives within critical and artistic practice.
Part of, among others, Studium Generale, St. Joost School of Art & Design
Workshop
Convivial (g)Hosts
Workshop in collaboration with Rob Leijdekkers, Sebastian Olma
During the "Convivial (G)Hosts" workshop, we explored the roles of ‘guest’ and ‘host’ and delved into the subtle dynamics that shape our interactions. The first part of the workshop focused on examining assumptions about one another and exploring existing structures and hierarchies. The term "ghosting" also refers to a familiar social phenomenon, in which someone abruptly ceases communication without explanation or warning. This prompts the question: what does your temporary presence in a place mean, and what do you (or do you not) leave behind?
Keywords: Hospitality, conviviality, artistic research
Essay
Gut Feeling
Dialoog via kunst, esthetiek, ethiek en een onderbuikgevoel
Keywords: kunst, esthetiek, ethiek
INTRODUCTIE In een fictieve dialoog tussen een koper en een verkoper in een elektronicazaak worden de zekerheden van efficiëntie, controle en helderheid tijdelijk opgeschort. In de ogenschijnlijk zekere omgeving van een winkelinterieur, waar marketing retoriek en ‘keuzevrijheid’ domineren, ontstaat een subtiele verwarring. Wat begint als een praktisch gesprek over de aanschaf van een stofzuiger verschuift naar een reflectie op consumptie, esthetiek en morele afweging. Zekerheden blijken niet neutraal, maar contextueel gevormd, strategisch ingezet en cultureel bepaald. De twijfel fungeert niet als obstakel, maar als een productieve toestand waarin betekenis kan ontstaan zonder directe uitkomst. Door verschillende vormen van twijfel — praktisch, existentieel, moreel, esthetisch — naast elkaar te plaatsen, wordt in de dialoog bevraagd hoe keuzes tot stand komen en hoe betekenis wordt geconstrueerd in een wereld waarin het verlangen naar duidelijkheid wordt gestuurd door systemen die tegelijk verwarring veroorzaken.
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Workshop
My Hygiene is (not) Your Hygiene
Philosophical framework for 'A Thinking Landscape #2: Little Flake, Little Hair, Little Booger'"
Keywords:
Hygiene, hospitality, dirt
This essay weaves together a personal encounter, philosophical reflection, and cultural critique to explore the boundaries of hygiene, hospitality, and disgust. Prompted by an incident at a partner’s family home, the author considers how cleanliness operates as both a physical practice and a social code, drawing on thinkers such as Derrida, Lagerspetz, and Nussbaum. Dirt is examined not only as a sensory presence but as a site of moral judgement, social exclusion, and cultural difference. The text reflects on the evolution of domestic cleaning technologies, from the first portable vacuum cleaner to the rise of robotic models, situating these within broader desires for order and control. Dust emerges as a metaphor for the human condition: a mingling of diverse, disintegrating elements coexisting without true cohesion. By tracing connections between bodily debris, consumer products, and social life, the essay questions our fear of contamination and considers whether we might embrace the messy, shared materiality that unites us.
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This essay is published by Thought Magicians
Story
De ezel, de reiger en een vis
Kort verhaal ter ondersteuning van de installatie Art Is Our Only Hope
Een ezel genaamd Hoop, die normaal nooit zijn plek verlaat, wandelt op een avond naar de sloot en treft daar een reiger met een grote vis. Wat volgt, is een onverwachte wending die het lot van de vis volledig verandert.
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