Photo Ilvy Njiokiktjien
Dries Verhoeven (Oosterhout, 1976) is an artist working at the intersection of visual art and performance. His practice spans installations, performances, interventions in public spaces, video works, and films. Through his work, Verhoeven critically engages with latent social fault lines, exploring the contradictions embedded in the thinking and behaviour of the late-capitalist individual. Ethical discomforts are brought to light without passing judgment. As he states: “I create portraits of friction.” The role of the audience is crucial in this. Verhoeven deliberately blurs the line between passive observation and active participation, creating a sense of immediacy in which spectators are confronted with their own complicity in existing power structures, the mediated reality, and the fragile connections between themselves as acting individuals and the idea of collective responsibility.
Biography
Dries Verhoeven studied scenography at the Academy of Fine Arts in Maastricht. As a scenographer, he collaborated with directors such as Marcus Azzini, Cornelis de Bondt, Ira Judkovskaja, Michel van der Aa and Lotte van den Berg. From 2003 onwards, Verhoeven developed into a creator of installation theatre, in which theatre, performance and installation art converged; in those early years, the physical experience of the visitor was central. From 2012, Verhoeven’s work began to shift towards what he describes as “time-based visual art.” In these works, theatrical conventions (works with a certain development) and museological conventions (the moving visitor) intersect; he regularly places “living sculptures” in urban public space.
For Verhoeven, it is of little importance to which artistic discipline his work might belong. His choice of medium or form is based on the extent to which it enables him to destabilize the viewer. He consistently opts for a disruptive and ambiguous approach. This results in work that calls for the active engagement of viewers, or places them in an ambiguous situation. Many works have a loop structure, without a clear beginning or end. Viewers determine for themselves how long they wish to remain present within a staged situation or intervention.
Collaboration lies at the heart of Verhoeven’s artistic practice. He frequently works with people from underrepresented groups whose lived experiences expose tensions within society. In the past, Verhoeven has collaborated with sex workers, shoplifters, recreational drug users and people with refugee backgrounds. With performers in Lagos (Nigeria), he made a film about Europe’s self-image.
In 2026, Dries Verhoeven represents the Netherlands at the 61st edition of the Venice Biennale, in collaboration with curator Rieke Vos.
Verhoeven has presented his work at, among others, the Wiener Festwochen, LIFT Festival London, Münchner Kammerspiele, Schauspielhaus Bochum, HAU Hebbel am Ufer Berlin, Nowy Teatr Warsaw, Holland Festival Amsterdam, SPRING Performing Arts Festival Utrecht, Onassis Stegi Athens, and Festival TransAmériques Montréal.
His work has been exhibited at, among others, West Den Haag, Het HEM Zaandam, Kanal-Centre Pompidou Brussels, Kunsthalle Bonn, EMST Athens, Centraal Museum Utrecht, Stedelijk Museum ’s-Hertogenbosch, and the Museu Nacional d’Art de Catalunya in Barcelona.
Verhoeven received the Young Directors Award at the Salzburger Festspiele (2009) and the Best International Performance Award at the Fadjr Festival in Tehran (2018). In the Netherlands, he received the Charlotte Köhler Prize (2002), the VSCD Mime Performance Award (2008), the Fentener van Vlissingen Culture Prize (2022), and a Golden Calf at the Netherlands Film Festival (2023). His work was selected for the Dutch and Flemish Theatre Festival (2008, 2023).
In 2020, Dries Verhoeven was appointed as a member of the Netherlands Academy of Arts.
publications
‘The Fortress’ accompanies the Dutch entry
for the 61st edition of La Biennale di Venezia.
It contains texts by Dries Verhoeven and
curator Rieke Vos, alongside contributions
by Bas Heijne, Maurits de Bruijn and Eric
Otieno Sumba and photography by Willem Popelier.
Published by Jap Sam Books in 2006.
‘In Doubt’ published by Kerber. Overview of works 2003-2019, with essays by Christiaan Weijts, Maaike Bleeker and Evelyne Coussens (2020)
In ‘Thinking through theatre and performance’ (2019) Maaike Bleeker writes about the production of No man’s land
Intermedial Practice, principles and practice, door Mark Crossley. Dries Verhoeven on ‘Guilty Landscapes’ (2019).
Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink on Dries Verhoeven in ‘Nomadic Theatre, Mobilizing Theater and Practice on the European Stage (2019).
Intermedial Performance and Politics in the public sphere, Palgrave uitgevers. Katia Arfara writes about ‘No Mans land’ and other works (2018).
‘Scratching where it hurts’, Overview of works 2012-2015. Self published (2016). For € 18 (excl. shipping) you can order the book via pr@driesverhoeven.com.
Performance in the Twenty-First Century: Theatres of Engagement, Andy Lavender, uitgegeven door Routledge (2016).
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‘Contemporary art in Dutch churches, 1990-2015. From Jan Dibbets to Tinkebell’, Joost de Wal (red.), p.31 and p.121 (February 2015). This publication is in Dutch.
‘Partizipation der Blicke. Szenerien des Sehens und Gesehenwerdens in Theater und Performance’, Adam Czirak, transcript Verlag, Bielefeld (February 2012). This publication is in German.
’80 cm away from you’, voorstellingen/performances 2002 – 2009, Dries Verhoeven (2009).
texts by Dries Verhoeven
‘The old is dying and the new cannot be born’, a text by Dries Verhoeven featured in the publication The Fortress, accompanying the work at the Dutch Pavilion at the Biennale di Venezia (2026)
‘De liefdadige kunstenaar’ (The charitable artist), an article by Dries Verhoeven for a publication of the Akademie van Kunsten (2020)
Read the article (in Dutch: pages 36-44 of the publication)
‘By touch’, Dries Verhoeven (2020).
‘Code Radicality’, Dries Verhoeven (2018).
Read the article (in Dutch)
‘Only doubt can save us’, Dries Verhoeven (2017).
‘Tegen de ziekte van het vriendelijk comfort’, Dries Verhoeven for Utrechts Verbond on www.nieuws030.nl (2015).
Read the column (in Dutch)
‘Keinen applaus bitte. Theater als kollektive Erfahrung’ (‘No applause, please. Theater as a collective experience’), Dries Verhoeven in Theater der Zeit. Go West, Theater in Fladern und den Niederlanden (2009).
Read the article (in German)
articles
2025
‘Dutch artist is in the market for your reaction’ Nina Siegal writes in The New York Times (May 22, 2025) about ‘Everything must go’ and four other works.
Read the article
“An observation on how little subversive power this form of ‘resistance’ ultimately has: it leads to no breakthrough, causes no cracks in the system, and does not disrupt the rhythm. This contrasts with forms of resistance that we have lost in many Western, individualized societies—namely, the organized resistance of the labor movement, the community of those who produce goods, rather than merely consume them.”
Jarosław Pietrzak writes about several works by Dries Verhoeven in the Polish edition of Le Monde Diplomatique.
Read the full article (in Polish)
2020
“Many of Verhoeven’s creations are constructed to make us reflect on how we look, and on looking as a social and cultural phenomenon. […] Verhoeven draws attention to our role as spectators: to how we enact this role, and how we are complicit in how the world comes about.”
Article by Maaike Bleeker in Parse Journal in which she refers to the work of Dries Verhoeven (Issue 12, Autumn 2020)
Read the article (in English)
‘You are Here is an impressive ritual for the 21st century. Not only does it encourage us to slow down and relax, but also restores a sense of openness in our relationship with others and ourselves.’
‘Impressive ritual for the 21st century’, Fransien van der Putt for Theaterkrant.nl (11-07-2020)
Read the review (in Dutch)
2019
“In Verhoeven’s installations, happenings and performances, the viewer is implicated in the project in a way that is difficult to predict, and often radically so, although based on an open relationship—namely, that of a voluntary glance.”
Kasia Torz in Klaxon
Read the article (from page 59)
“The muck has to go somewhere.”
For Mister Motley Selm Wenselaer interviewed Verhoeven about his installation Happiness at the NDSM-wharf and on the question if art can still disrupt the public space (19-03-19)
Read the interview here (in Dutch)
“Verhoeven employed the censorship to provoke a discussion on the paternalism of the Finnish state.”
DutchCulture and the Dutch Performing Arts Fund organised Artistiek Kompas, a symposium on artistic freedom and censorship. An interpretation of four international cases in which artists had to adapt their work in order to be able to show it. (May 2019).
Read the article by Errol Boon
2017
Wanna Play? is one of the works discussed in ‘Attention Please! Changing Modes of Engagement in Device-Enabled One-to-One Performance Encounters’
Eirini Nedelkopoulou in Contemporary Theatre Review (November 2017).
Read the article
“Verhoeven masterfully displays the gap between the visible and the real: he displays, in front of the eyes of the spectators in an explicit and ‘live’ way, the artificiality of fear and that fear is nothing more than a product of ‘fiction.’”
Mehmet Kerem Özel wrote an article for Art Unlimited titled: ‘Dries Verhoeven’s theatrical world based on spectators’ experience’ (October 2017).
Read the article
2016
‘Disruption is the objective’ (‘Ontregeling is het doel’).
Journalist Evelyne Coussens interviewed Verhoeven for the Flemmish newspaper De Morgen (28-09-2016).
Read the interview (in Dutch)
‘A call for doubts’ (‘Een oproep om te twijfelen’).
Lieneke Hulshof interviewed Verhoeven for Dutch art blog Mister Motley (September 2016).
Read the interview (in Dutch)
‘With or without theater seats’
Paul van der Steen interviewed Verhoeven and Casper Van de putte in the context of 65 year Academy of Performing Arts Maastricht (March 2016).
Read the article (p.12) (in Dutch)
‘Before I moved a vase, now I move the couch’
Wouter Hillaert interviewed Verhoeven for De Standaard (07-11-2015).
Read the article (in Dutch)
2015 – 2012
‘Ants Against the Apocalypse’
Agnese Čivle interviewed Verhoeven for Arterritory.com (04-11-2015).
Read the interview
“Dank dieser Installation verwickelten sich sehr unterschiedliche Passanten in Gespräche: Der öffentliche Raum wurde wieder zu einem Verhandlungsort scheinbar längst abgesteckter und kaum hinterfragter Normen.”
Neue realitäten: Jahrbuch des Bundesverband Freie Darstellende Künste 2014/15′ by Tobias Brenk (05-10-2015).
Read the text (in German)
‘Has art boxed itself into a corner?’
Stuart Jeffries for The Guardian (09-02-2015).
Read the article
‘Was macht das Theater, Dries Verhoeven?’
A discussion with Dries and Anna Volkland in Theater der Zeit (November 2014).
Read the interview (in German)
‘Perceiving and Believing: An Enactive Approach to Spectatorship’,
Maaike Bleeker and Isis Germano in Theatre Journal (66:3), p. 363-384 (May 2014).
Go to the download page
‘Nomad in No man’s land’
Tim de Hullu for AD/Utrechts Nieuwsblad (14-09-2013).
Read the interview (in Dutch)
‘Seeing blind’
Karin Veraart interviews Verhoeven for De Volkskrant (18-05-2012).
Read the interview (in Dutch)
‘Dries Verhoeven the one-man band’
Anne Gonon for Strada, p.46-48 (April 2012).
Read the article
2011 – 2004
Thinking in motion’ (‘Bewegend denken’)
Essay by Nienke Scholts in Etcetera #125, p. 44 (June 2011).
Read the essay (in Dutch)
‘”De toeschouwer is voor mij de hoofdpersoon. Ik wil weten hoe hij of zij kijkt en luistert, ik wil verwarren en beroeren, en hem vervolgens aan het denken zetten.”‘
Simon van den Berg interviewed Dries for the international English language magazine Dutch Mountains from SICA (01-02-2010).
Read the interview
‘Buy a ticket for the world’
Marijn van der Jagt for Vrij Nederland (09-05-2009).
Read the article (in Dutch)
‘The strength of the human dimension’
a portrait of Dries as a decor designer in response to After Life, the opera by Michel van der Aa (2009).
Read the portrait (in Dutch)
Dutch Performance Award 2008 jury report
You are here and No man’s land, p.18-19 (16-09-2008).
Read the jury report
‘Performing stories. About the creative process of Trail tracking (Sporenonderzoek)’
An interview with Dries by Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink (01-02-2008).
Read the interview (in Dutch)
Up until 2005, the Stichting Aanmoedigingsfonds voor de Kunsten (Dutch Arts Incentive Fund) awarded an incentive prize annually to a young, talented performing artist working behind the screens: the Wim Bary Perspective Prize.
Verhoeven was awarded this prize in 2004 (17-10-2004).
Read the jury report (in Dutch)
‘Danger must always be lurking in theatre’ (‘Bij toneel moet gevaar op de loer liggen’)
Read the article (in Dutch)