Berlin-based artist Wouter Osterholt got his bachelor degree in fine arts at the Rietveld Academy In Amsterdam, the Netherlands in 2001. His work is site- and context specific and manifests itself along the faultlines and breaking points of our (political) landscape where social injustice, conflicts or problems come to light. He often uses the method of recontextualization of existing material, such as buildings, monuments, sculptures, rituals or archival material. These reappropriations or reconstructions are a way to question and problematize the focus on exclusivity within our capitalist society and to declare them as part of a larger public discussion in which individuals are challenged to express their personal relationship to the political. Osterholt’s goal is to bring politics back in the public sphere and test the (im)possibilities of alternative ideas which question the existing hegemony. He tests the boundaries and presuppositions, which form the fundament of our accepted reality in order to open an agonistic space which challenges the paralyzing idea of liberal capitalist democracy as the only political ideal. His work seeks to exceed the parameters of public dialogue and politics by entering the realm of imagination, unexpressed thoughts and dreams. Osterholt was artists-in-residence at the White House in London (UK), Townhouse Gallery in Cairo (EG), the MAK Center in Los Angeles (US), Capacete in Rio de Janeiro (BR), IASKA in Perth (AUS), and at PIST in Istanbul (TR), and more. He exhibited works at: The Mosaic Rooms (UK), Frisian Museum (NL), the 13th Istanbul biennial (TR), the Townhouse Gallery (EG), Schunck, museum in Heerlen (NL), etc. He gave presentations at Mediamatic, Amsterdam (NL); Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Berlin (DE); Royal College of Art, London (UK); and the Centre for Independent Social Research (CISR), Saint Petersburg (RU), and more.

For more information about his work: www.wouterosterholt.com