Selected works | Wouter Osterholt

Floating Fathers

Speculative sculpture that accounts for the turbulent history of industrialization of the Danube River with the aim to contribute to its renaturation, DE, HU, RS. (2024)

Concert d'Oiseaux

(French for 'Concert of Birds') is a permanent sculpture of vagrant bird species found in Belgium during the last years. (2024)

(German for 'A City for All’) is an on-site embroidery workshop in a small park as a means to engage with the local community on the ecological and social (housing) situation of Grünau, Berlin, DE. (2023 – ongoing)

Gods of the Anthropocene

Central to this project is a replica of a Mesolithic antler headdress that is redesigned as a communication device to talk to inhabitants near the findsite of the original object in Berlin Biesdorf, DE. (2023)

All Cars Are Barricades

A series of sculptures made from car debris found along the A100 in Berlin indicating the car-free area as proposed by the Berlin Autofrei campaign, DE. (2023)

Zum Grünen Wald

(German for 'To the Green Forest') is a on-site production of a sculpture in an effort to talk with passers-by on the impact of the climate crisis and its effects on the Grunewald forest in Berlin, DE. (2022)

Deep Time Agency

An exhibition of Deep Time Agency, a multi-year, artistic research initiative with the aim to contextualise archaeological and paleontological objects in (post-)industrial landscapes, Rotterdam, NL. (2022)

Moeraspaleis

(Dutch for Swamp Palace) is a reconstruction of a primeval forest, based on an ecological experiment of the paleoanthropologist Eugène Dubois, Tegelen, NL. (2022)

Concrete Reef

Site-specific sculpture designed as an artificial reef for a post-industrial lake in a former limestone quarry near Maastricht, NL. (2022)

Ancestors Rising

Drone flight over the Garzweiler lignite mine as a means to reactivate two 10.000 year old archaeological objects, North-Rhine Westphalia, DE. (2022)

Kaalslag

(Dutch for 'Clear Cut') Overview of tree-felling protests in the Netherlands, used as source material for a series of performances in the Amstelpark in Amsterdam, NL. (2020 - 2022)

Una Forza Del Passato

(Italian for 'A Force from the Past') Archeological survey of the former Borghetto Latino, an informal neighborhood in the Appian Way Regional Park in Rome, IT. (2019 - 2022)

Taking Stock

Commemorative work on the closure and consequent transformation of the Townhouse Gallery in Cairo, EG through a series of interactive still-life drawing sessions. (2020 - 2021)

Exhibition at Nieuw Dakota, Amsterdam, NL

Descent into the Future

Installation as a proposal for the return of a fish fossil to its original find site in a post-industrial lake in NRW, Blausteinsee, DE. (2020 - 2021)

Golden Tide

Project on the influx of sargassum seaweed in the Caribbean, launched at a tourist market in Curaçao. (2019)

Beacon Tree

Outdoor painting sessions as a means to organize a neighborhood gathering based on an ancient tradition of a local trysting tree in Dagenham, London, UK. (2017 - 2019)

Island of a Million Palm Trees

Temporary monument in the form of a Palm tree made from waste tires found on the man-made island of Nurana in the North of Bahrain. (2017)

Buurtwacht

(Dutch for Neighborhood Watch) Mobile projection of an animated Assyrian sculpture 'patrolling' the streets around a newly opened asylum center in Maastricht, NL (2016)

Paraíso Ocupado

(Portuguese for 'Occupied Paradise') An exhibition as a proposal for a new museum in Rio de Janeiro based on the reconstruction of a failed modernist plan. (2012 - 2016)

Vapauden Temppeli

(Finnish for 'Freedom Temple') Reconstruction of a failed memorial proposal with the aim to reconsider the foundations of the Finnish state. (2015)

De Vlucht

(The Flight) Sugar sculpture as a temporary monument dedicated to newly arrived migrants in Breda, NL. (2015)

Sachbeschädigung

(Property Damage) A series of graffiti works in Germany based on the investigation of left-wing extremism by the German right-wing extremists, NPD. (2013)

Weest geen Knecht der Menschen

(Be not a servant of men) Documentary work on the conflict between protestant Mennonites and Ayoreo indians in Paraguay. (2013)

Insanlik Aniti - Yardim Eden Eller

(Turkish for Monument to Humanity - Helping Hands) Proposal for a new Monument to Humanity as an alternative for the demolished sculpture in Kars, TR. (2011 - 2013)

St. Joseph

Participatory ritual on notions of debt, poverty, prosperity and wealth in a neighborhood in Boxtel, NL. (2013)

Privacy Statement

Public intervention with CCTV cameras with the aim to find participants for workshop about online privacy, Zoetermeer, NL. (2013)

Open to the Public

Research and a public platform for discussion about the meaning and potential of vacant buildings in Preston, UK. (2013)

De Meent

(The Commons) A proposal to buy a house with a large, heterogeneous group of people in the center of Amsterdam, NL. (2012)

To the Other End

Project about the live export of sheep from Western Australia towards the Middle East. (2012)

Where Opinions Meet

Public consultation on the design of two mosques in Eindhoven, NL. (2010)

My Country is the World

Redesigned post-war propaganda posters with quotes from cosmopolitan thinkers as a proposal to reimagine a historical narrative. (2010)

Inspraakronde

(Public Consultation) Project on the phenomenon of citizen participation in urban planning, situated in a renovated neighborhood in Leeuwarden, NL. (2009)

Your Home is in Our Hands

Exploring the fallout of the American housing crisis by pushing a model home through the streets of a Los Angeles suburb, eliciting reactions, US. (2009)