Similar to props in fictional settings like film and theatre, Willem de Haan (Apeldoorn, Netherlands, 1996) wants his sculptures to directly influence the situations around them. By presenting playful and immersive site specific presentations he tries to undermine and challenge the unwritten rules that every space or location is subject to.
De Haan graduated from Bachelor Fine Art at ArtEZ Institute of the Arts (Arnhem) in 2017. His works have been exhibited at Unfair (Amsterdam), Nieuwe Vide (Haarlem), LOOP (Barcelona) and Stichting NDSM (Amsterdam) amongst others. He worked as an independent curator for De Player (Rotterdam) and MAMA (Rotterdam) and was an artist in residence at ZK/U (Berlin), and SAM (Saint Petersburg). De Haan has been a guest lecturer at HKU (Utrecht) and Chelsea College of Arts (London). His work has been widely published in De Volkskrant, NRC, VICE and Süddeutsche Zeitung Magazin, among others.
Recently he has completed an artistic residency at the centre for art research and production Hangar in Barcelona
