Willem de Haan, Artist in Residence 2022

Press Photo 001
Photo © Willem de Haan

Residency Period
May 15 to September 15, 2022

organized in cooperation with Notgalerie Seestadt – Dream Estate

Willem de Haan (*1996) challenges and undermines the social, political and mental rules of common locations and situations by adding artificial elements in a convincing yet unsubtle way. These suggestive sculptural interventions exert direct influence on daily situations, similar to how props influence fictional scenarios in film and theatre. He graduated from Bachelor of Fine Arts at ArtEZ– Institute of the Arts in 2017. Ever since, he’s been working on immersive presentations for exhibition programs of Unfair (Amsterdam), Ana Mas Projects (Barcelona), Gouvernement (Ghent) and Medusa (Antwerp) amongst others.

Selected by a call for proposals, the jury, consisting of Pablo Chiereghin (artist), Alexandra Grausam (director das weisse haus and studio das weisse haus), Barbara Horvath (curator and director Kunstverein Eisenstadt), Katja Stecher (program manager studio das weisse haus) and Reinhold Zisser (founder of Notgalerie Seestadt – DREAM ESTATE), Willem de Haan’s proposal met the assessment criteria in the most convincing manner, is a promising innovative concepts as well as ensures an engagement with the public art site. Characterized by a certain irony, he considers the residents of Seestadt as pioneers. During the residency, he will follow the traces of the satellite city in search of iconic elements and stories in order to create a visual narrative for a new history to come.