I grew up on a farm in the Netherlands together with my twin sister Natasja, where we spent our days daydreaming, drawing, horse back riding and working on the field. We learned work on a farm was never really done and that we wanted to create our own ‘work’. After a short career as an equestrian, I did an introduction in Philosophy and studied Visual Arts at KASK, Ghent. I moved to Amsterdam where I worked at Kunstverein Amsterdam on the play In:quest of Icarus in het Stedelijk Museum. e.g.
In my artistic work I explored the boundaries between the public and the private, the banal as political entity: in exhibitions, performative interventions, sketches or textual works, at OT301, Sale Docks, M HKA, Verbeke Foundation, nY magazine, de Witte Raaf, de Brakke Grond. As a writer and performer I'd like to explore different text forms and performance styles, often within one work.
Together with Oshin Albrecht I founded the collective 'buren’ in 2012. Through
performance, video, text, objects, songs, photography and installation
we navigate ideas of community, domesticity, gender, (art) history and
neoliberal fantasies. With our work we channel humorous, imaginative and critical realities with a strong visual and musical drive. Our practice is shown in white cubes, black boxes, discursive spaces, on- and off- spaces and is supported by a.o. Playground (STUK / Museum M), Vooruit, Pukkelpop, de Brakke Grond, Netwerk Aalst, Galerie AmPolylog, Z33, Buda, Bâtard, Kaaitheater, Casco, Tatjana Pieters, workspace brussels, KAAP. From 2021-2024 buren is part of the European Network APAP - Feminist Futures and from 2023-2025 we are artists in residence at Kaaitheatre.
Besides working with Oshin I collaborate with others as a scenographer and as an actor or voice actor: on stage (Davis Freeman, Peter Aers & Femke Gyselinck, Lies Pauwels & NTGent) and on screen (Assaf Gruber, Dora Garcia, Veerle Dewilde, Juliet & Onder Vuur). From 2018-2023 I was a core member of Engagement,
a movement that tries to tackle sexual harassment, sexism and power
abuse in the Belgian arts field, and beyond.
I am currently working on my first short film Maturation Station - a shrimp cocktail of science, blue economy, conferences and care - and on buren’s new performance shoe/farm.
CONTACT: melissamabesoone@hotmail.com