Lisette Ros (1991) is a conceptual and performance artist with roots in Indonesia. She investigates how identity is shaped by the invisible forces within our past, present and everyday lives. Ros uses her body as a living research site, where social norms, gender roles, cultural inheritance and personal history meet and conflict.

Through repetition, physical endurance and vulnerability, she makes visible what often remains hidden: how power, habits, roots, labels, patterns and expectations become inscribed in the body. She identifies as humanimal, queer and fluid—not as fixed labels, but as ways of existing between categories, resisting the idea that identity must be stable or singular.

Ros’ performances do not aim to represent experience, but to live through it. The body becomes both evidence and question. Within this space of discomfort, friction and transformation, she researches what it means to belong, to change, and to exist within—and beyond—the structures that define us.

NOTE: The video works on this website are mostly hosted on Vimeo, blocked in some countries. Viewers in those countries will need to use a VPN to watch the videos.

CURRENT / UPCOMING:

• May 6 – May 15, My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’, live performance and participatory performance, Rozet Arnhem, NL.
• May 13 – June 28, My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’, exhibition on commission by FDFA, Rozet Arnhem, NL.
• July 9, “Presence in Absence” Piece three (2024), performance and installation, 24-hour take-over, RAA.Space, Riga, LV.
• August 8, …Elk rondje is anders—Special 10 Years Edition (2025), live performance and outside installation, Fecund Ground group exhibition by Vriend van Bavink Gallery, RAAM Art Space, Amsterdam, NL.
• August 15, …Elk rondje is anders—Special 10 Years Edition (2025), live performance and installation, Digital Overdose Multigroove, HAL25, Alkmaar, NL.
• August 23, Thank You Notes, live reading during finissage of Judy Chicago exhibition, Joods Museum, Amsterdam, NL.
• August 28, …Elk rondje is anders, live on the radio station Echobox, Amsterdam, NL.
• September 26, …Elk rondje is anders, live performance and installation, Museumnacht, HAL25, Alkmaar, NL.
• October ’26 – June ’27, Master of Apprentice Program by Kunstpodium T, Tilburg, NL.
• October 2 – October 9, My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’, ongoing live performance and exhibition, ChangeMakers by Nederlandse Dansdagen, Theater de Vrijthof, Maastricht, NL.
• October 12 – October 16, Amsterdam Museumkamp ELJA, artist, coach and development of group project with children including an exhibition on ‘The Future of Amsterdam’, to be announced, Amsterdam, NL.
• November ‘25 – October ‘26, My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’,
ChangeMakers research continuation and online monthly exhibition, DansMuseum by Nederlandse Dansdagen, worldwide, NL.
• October 2 – October 9, My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’, exhibition on commission, group of ChangeMakers by Nederlandse Dansdagen, Theater de Vrijthof, Maastricht, NL.
• November ‘25 – October ‘26, My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’,
ChangeMakers research continuation and online monthly exhibition, DansMuseum by Nederlandse Dansdagen, worldwide, NL.
• November 3, 10, 17, 24 and 27, (De) Construction of Identity, performance art workshop month by Lisette Ros in collaboration with NOWHERE including an exhibition, NOWHERE, Amsterdam, NL. Sign-up here.
• December 7 – December 12, artist, coach and exchange of workshop week by Lisette Ros for ‘Gender Language’ project, Cliffordstudio, Amsterdam, NL.

NOW ONLINE: ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’ (2025/2026) now online
NOW ONLINE: ‘“Presence in Absence” Piece three’ (2024) in Riga, Latvia now online
Watch: ‘Monstruo de Agua’ short docu at Nowness.

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INTERNATIONAL HIGHLIGHTS:

• Workshop ‘Your Time’ at Simbioze 2.0 by Kefirsstudio, Riga, LV.
• ‘My Self, the Body’ video work on display at Art Basel Miami, as part of PerformVu exhibition, Miami, USA.
• ‘My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots’, phase three ‘Odor Print’ at Dalemwangi Art Space with Marintan Sirait, Bandung, IDN.
• Workshop ‘Your Roots’ and video screening of ‘(the Act of) Uprooting’ at Gudskul Ekosistem, Jakarta, IDN.
• Workshop ‘Your Roots’ and video screening of ‘(the Act of) Uprooting’ at GOR, Bandung, IDN.
• ‘My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots’, phase one ‘(the Act of) Uprooting’ at Studio Plesungan Melati Suryodarmo, Solo, IDN.
• Workshop ‘The Construction of Identity, and the fluidity thereof’ shared at Studio Plesungan, Solo, IDN and at Kaliwungu Performance Festival, Kaliwungu, IDN.
• ‘I’ll dance as fast as I can’ Special Art Nou Edition at Piramídon Centre d’Arte Contemporani, Barcelona, SP.
• ‘The Absence of Metamorphosis’ at Casa Lü Galería, CDMX, MEX.
• ‘Liberation from Definition’ publication Metal Magazine, Barcelona, SP.
• ‘My Humanoid Self, (Heavy) Metal’ live performance and installation at gallerí Korpúlfsstaðir as part of tunglið tunglið taktu mig exhibition, IS.
• ‘My Self, the Fetus’ at The Curators Room – La Oficina BCN, Barcelona, SP.
• Artist in Resident at Marina Abramovic, Peloponnese, GR.
• ‘My Self, the (First) Breath’ at SIM Gallery, Reykjavik, IS.
• ‘Reframing Conventions’ for INTERBELLUM #1 as part of New Viewings at Barbara Thumm Galerie, Berlin, Germany
• ‘The Mirror’ at Oped Gallery, Tokyo, JP, ‘Reflection’ exhibition
• ‘TRANCE’ collaboration with Asian Dope Boys (Tianzhuo Chen) at MWoods Museum, Beijing, CN.
• ‘My Self, the Body’ video screening at Uncensored Festival, London, UK.
• Launch of ‘My Self, the Body’ at South By Southwest (SXSW), Austin, TX, USA.
• ‘Reframing Conventions’ live performance at Venice Architecture Biennale, Venice, Italy.

© Biography by Roosje Klap
© Lisette Ros