Lisette Ros

Conceptual performance artist

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🇮🇩🇳🇱 𝔸𝕦𝕘 2023 – ℂ𝕦𝕣𝕣𝕖𝕟𝕥: ‘My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots’
🌍 Nov – Oct 2026: ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’ monthly contribution at DansMuseum, NDD

‘“Presence in Absence” Piece two’ (2024) Live 6-ho

‘“Presence in Absence” Piece two’ (2024) Live 6-hour opening performance of ‘Simbioze 2.0’, November 2025 at RAA Gallery, Riga 🇱🇻 
—
CONCEPT
‘“Presence in Absence”’ is a research series by conceptual and performance artist Lisette Ros which she started in Mexico-City in 2023. She focuses on the perceptible act of presence in absence by examining ‘The Absent Body’.

PERFORMANCE PIECE TWO
‘“Presence in Absence” Piece two’ is the second live performance open to public as part of this research and conceptual exploration.

For this site-specific edition, the building’s expansive windows become both canvas and medium. In preparation of the work, a custom-developed white mixture including kefir is applied to cover the windows completely. From within, the space is obscured; from outside, passersby may not initially perceive anything unfolding. Over time, after the mixture is hardened, the performance starts. Ros literally opened-up the space, as she slowly scrapes away the mixture with bare nails, revealing shifting perspectives on presence and absence while blurring the boundaries between intervention, everyday action, and performance.

This durational process—both conceptual and physical—will leave behind an evolving installation, as the scraped material accumulates in the space, forming traces of absence and emergence.   The group exhibition inside displayed other art works created by participants of the Simbioze 2.0 workshop week held in August 2025 in Skujene, LV. Lisette Ros was commissioned to develop and lead the performance art workshop week. Some of her participants exhibited their works in Riga as well, translating elements of the nature setting into urban setting.   Enormous thanks to the beautiful team, the participants and all the others involved. Grateful is an understatement. Can’t wait for the next chapters together. 🥛🤍

‘My Self, the Fetus’ (2015) Live performance, han

‘My Self, the Fetus’ (2015)

Live performance, handmade material, (residue) skin installation at Dokzaal, as part of ADE Arts & Culture program (October 2025).

Duration live performance: 03:00:00 or 05:00:00
—

The recognition of who we are is defined by our self-conscience as it is defined by ‘the Other’. The start of our identification process means decreasing the sense of self. As sociologist/poet Arthur Rimbaud sharply stated: “Je est un autre” — the I is someone else — the I is created through other people’s view on us. Throughout our lives, after we’ve lost this self, we will be constantly performing [other people’s vision on/of us].

This research was translated into a durational piece (2015) in which artist Lisette Ros lies down in fetal position with the body covered in a material that evolves from liquid to fixed to cracked within a durational time frame. This represents the decreasing of the self while other people’s vision takes over. The left-over skin — the residue — which is shredded off at the end of the performance, is the representation of this. Ros still performs this work today.

Thank you to everybody involved. 🤍👶

Workshop week By Artist: Lisette Ros Title: ‘Your

Workshop week
By Artist: Lisette Ros
Title: ‘Your Time’

Linked to her artistic practice, Lisette Ros has been developing and providing creative programs, workshops and performative lectures for nearly a decade.

This new workshop week ‘Your Time’ took place in nature as part of Simbioze 2.0 in Latvia (2025). This reel is a brief impression of the exhibition day, including performance art works some of my participants developed during the workshop week in Skujene.

Over six days we explored the multifaceted concept of Time: clock-time (Chronos), empty time (Kairos), bodily and psychological rhythms, digital and analogue time, daytime, nighttime, in-between-time… timing, waiting, simultaneity.

Through movement, observation, location-related influences and material-based exploration, participants examined temporal shifts; contrasting immediate action with extended duration, inner rhythms with external structures.

Throughout the week Lisette worked closely with the participants, offering personal attention and depth. Deconstruction served as an entry point, followed by reconstruction, guided by shared and personal experiences, backgrounds, skillsets and intentions. Vulnerability, embodiment, and theoretical references interwove as guiding threads.

Grateful for the opportunity and trust I got from the Kefirs team and lots of gratitude to the participants’ presence, trust, discipline, perseverance and vulnerability.

Thank you to everyone involved in making this possible. Looking forward to our next steps together! 🤍🥛

Workshop week By Artist: Lisette Ros Title: ‘Your

Workshop week
By Artist: Lisette Ros
Title: ‘Your Time’

Linked to her artistic practice, Lisette Ros has been developing and providing creative programs, workshops and performative lectures for a decade.

This new workshop week ‘Your Time’ took place in nature as part of Simbioze 2.0 in Latvia (2025). This reel is a brief impression of some of the exercises from the third and fourth day. Over six days we explored the multifaceted concept of Time: clock-time (Chronos), empty time (Kairos), bodily and psychological rhythms, digital and analogue time, daytime, nighttime, in-between-time… timing, waiting, simultaneity.

Through movement, observation, location-related influences and material-based exploration, participants examined temporal shifts; contrasting immediate action with extended duration, inner rhythms with external structures.

Throughout the week Lisette worked closely with the participants, offering personal attention and depth. Deconstruction served as an entry point, followed by reconstruction, guided by shared and personal experiences, backgrounds, skillsets and intentions. Vulnerability, embodiment, and theoretical references interwove as guiding threads.

During the week all of us worked towards an exhibition day, where the participants presented their art works, mentored by Lisette Ros.

Grateful for the participants’ presence, trust, discipline, perseverance and vulnerability.

Thank you to everyone involved in making this possible. 🤍🥛

Workshop week By Artist: Lisette Ros Title: ‘Your

Workshop week
By Artist: Lisette Ros
Title: ‘Your Time’

Linked to her artistic practice, Lisette Ros has been developing and providing creative programs, workshops and performative lectures for a decade.

This new workshop week ‘Your Time’ took place in nature as part of Simbioze 2.0 in Latvia (2025). This reel is a brief impression of some of the exercises from the first two days. Over six days we explored the multifaceted concept of Time: clock-time (Chronos), empty time (Kairos), bodily and psychological rhythms, digital and analogue time, daytime, nighttime, in-between-time… timing, waiting, simultaneity.

Through movement, observation, location-related influences and material-based exploration, participants examined temporal shifts; contrasting immediate action with extended duration, inner rhythms with external structures.

Throughout the week Lisette worked closely with the participants, offering personal attention and depth. Deconstruction served as an entry point, followed by reconstruction, guided by shared and personal experiences, backgrounds, skillsets and intentions. Vulnerability, embodiment, and theoretical references interwove as guiding threads.

During the week all of us worked towards an exhibition day, where her participants presented their art works, mentored by Lisette Ros.

Grateful for the participants’ presence, trust, discipline, perseverance and vulnerability. *Audio extracted from sound exercises as part of the workshop week.

Thank you to everyone involved in making this possible. 🤍🥛

*RAW FOOTAGE “left right left right Animals shall

*RAW FOOTAGE

“left right left right
Animals shall be God”
—

We seek urgency in our paralysis.

Can we still express who we truly are
in a world that seems designed to numb and immobilize us?

LR On Demand is paralyzed.
We, we animals, no longer believe in ourselves. The bold, radiant gods are gone.
And so, we turn inward. We return to what is proportional.

In the premiere of this performance work we search for the divine
for the sacred fire that could pull us out of this collective, human, social paralysis.

We roam the boundaries of reason and sanity,
searching for something beyond the human, beyond the broken logic of now.

Where do we find the urge to rise again?
To surpass ourselves?
We live in a systemized world,
a society that rewards control over chaos, sameness over fire.

This performance is both a lament and a revolt.

A dance of refusal.
A trance of remembrance.
An ecstatic cry from within the silence.
—

‘I’ll dance as fast as I can—Part 2: The Raving Ones (Maenads)’ is a collaboration between Lisette Ros and Gabriel Rolt. This performance was performed four times on June 15-16 in Terschelling, and is the second part of the trilogy ‘I’ll dance as fast as I can’, started in 2020 with ‘I’ll dance as fast as I can’.

*With special thanks to everybody involved. 🩸🖤

’Reframing Conventions’ Time-Lapse Edition (2013/2

’Reframing Conventions’ Time-Lapse Edition (2013/2025)
A site-specific performance intervention expanding on my performance work ‘Reframing Conventions’ (2013/2020) and continuing the long-term research into sitting behavior.

For the durational live performance work ‘Reframing Conventions’ (2013) I sat on the same chair for eight hours without practicing any other action. This live performance derived from my research into the convention of sitting (in office spaces); questioning the act of sitting and how our bodies were/are conditioned to remain passive, seated, and still within Western office settings.

In spaces like this one at De Balie, people are typically expected, or even socially conditioned, to sit still. This reflects a Western norm embedded in the context of “listening to a conversation,” reinforced by spatial arrangements specifically designed to support this behavior.

In this new iteration ‘Reframing Conventions: Time-Lapse Edition’, I flip that stillness into motion. Instead of holding a single seat, I move between every possible “seat” in the space, repetitively and ritually. The subtle adjustments I’ve done in the spatial arrangement change the sitting landscape.

What happens when sitting becomes active? When movement becomes the norm?

‘Reframing Conventions: Time-Lapse Edition’ by Lisette Ros was commissioned by De Balie ‘In Our Time’, a Forum on European Culture with Azu Nwagbogu and Tino Sehgal. Footage by De Balie / Jan Boeve / Viktoryia Kharytonava. 🩶

BEHIND THE SCENES PRACTICE: Preparations on locati

BEHIND THE SCENES PRACTICE:
Preparations on location for ‘Reframing Conventions Time-Lapse Edition’, 2025.
 A site-specific performance intervention expanding on my performance work ‘Reframing Conventions’ (2013/2020) and ongoing long-term research into sitting behavior. Soon online.

Thank you dear Azu Nwagbogu, dear Tino Sehgal, De Balie for the invitation and trusting me. 🩶

“left right left right Animals shall be God” — We

“left right left right
Animals shall be God”
—

We seek urgency in our paralysis.

Can we still express who we truly are
in a world that seems designed to numb and immobilize us?

LR On Demand is paralyzed.
We, we animals, no longer believe in ourselves. The bold, radiant gods are gone.
And so, we turn inward. We return to what is proportional.

In the premiere of this performance work we search for the divine
for the sacred fire that could pull us out of this collective, human, social paralysis.

We roam the boundaries of reason and sanity,
searching for something beyond the human, beyond the broken logic of now.

Where do we find the urge to rise again?
To surpass ourselves?
We live in a systemized world,
a society that rewards control over chaos, sameness over fire.

This performance is both a lament and a revolt.

A dance of refusal.
A trance of remembrance.
An ecstatic cry from within the silence.
—

'I’ll dance as fast as I can—Part 2: The Raving Ones (Maenads)' is a collaboration between Lisette Ros and Gabriel Rolt. This performance was performed four times on June 15-16 in Terschelling, and is the second part of the trilogy 'I’ll dance as fast as I can', started in 2020 with 'I’ll dance as fast as I can'.

*With special thanks to everybody involved. 🩸❤️

BEHIND THE SCENES PRACTICE: ‘I’ll dance as fast as

BEHIND THE SCENES PRACTICE:
‘I’ll dance as fast as I can—Part 2: The Raving Ones (Maenads)’

“left right left right
Animals shall be God”

SHORT CONCEPT: We seek urgency in our paralysis.
 Can we still express who we truly are
in a world that seems designed to numb and immobilize us?

LR On Demand is paralyzed. We, we animals, no longer believe in ourselves. The bold, radiant gods are gone.
And so, we turn inward. We return to what is proportional.

In the premiere of this performance work we search for the divine—for the sacred fire that could pull us out of this collective, human, social paralysis.

Where do we find the urge to rise again?
To surpass ourselves?
  ‘I’ll dance as fast as I can—Part 2: The Raving Ones (Maenads)’ is a collaboration between Lisette Ros and Gabriel Rolt. This performance is the second part of the trilogy ‘I’ll dance as fast as I can’, started in 2020. 🩸

🔉“Once I was myself, my origin, bathed in the sam

🔉“Once I was myself, my origin,
bathed in the same amniotic fluid
as my many ancestors…”

🤍 10 Years of ‘My Self, the Fetus’ (2015)

Ten years ago, I launched ‘My Self, the Fetus’. The performance work arose from a deceptively simple phrase—“just be yourself.” But what does that actually mean? What does it ask of us, and what does it erase?

The performance emerged from the insight that the recognition of who we are is not purely internal—it is shaped, if not determined, by the Other. Inspired by Rimbaud’s “Je est un autre” (“I is someone else”), ‘My Self, the Fetus’ explored the idea that identity begins to dissolve the moment self-consciousness is born. In a society where the Self is endlessly performed to match external expectations, this work attempts to return to a pre-conscious state—a moment before the gaze, before language, before categorization.

The result was a durational live performance and installation in which I lie curled in fetal position, encased in a custom-developed mixture that shifts from liquid to solid to cracked over five hours. The residue left behind—the skin I shed—is not just a residue artefact, but a metaphor for the losing of the self and for the layers of self shaped by others.

The poem was especially written for this work by Justin Samgar. The material artefact I wear in the reel is the left-over skin I shed during the previous live performance (2024).

—

In the ten years since its first performance, ‘My Self, the Fetus’ has grown, like the self it questions. Some of the live performances have been witnessed by many; others lived quietly, without an audience. But always, the work remains a site of intimate transformation. The process is the work.

If you’d like to acquire one of these tactile artifacts—each one a gesture of becoming and un-becoming—please reach out via message or email to inquire about availability and special pricing.  
Thank you for witnessing and thank you to everyone involved.

🎈10 Years of ‘My Self, the Fetus’ (2015) Ten year

🎈10 Years of ‘My Self, the Fetus’ (2015)

Ten years ago, I launched ‘My Self, the Fetus’ —a durational performance and installation questioning the meaning of “just being yourself.” Inspired by the idea that the self is formed through others, this piece marked the beginning of my ongoing research into the self and the identification process.

A performance and installation where I lie curled in fetal position, encased in a custom-developed mixture that shifts over 5 hours—from liquid to cracked—I perform the decreasing of self. In a society where the self is endlessly performed to match external expectations, this work attempts to return to a pre-conscious state—a moment before the gaze, before language, before categorization. What remains is a shed skin, a residue of the gaze. A quiet rebellion. A fragile offering.

📸 Over the past decade, photographer Marieke Gras | Studio Shakti has documented the work in intimate analog stills. We’re celebrating this anniversary with a ‘special polaroid release’—available as original polaroids or high-quality prints.

Each print is a personal artefact.

Want one? Message or email me for availability + special pricing. Thank you for witnessing and thank you to everyone involved.

/ In the ten years since its first performance, ‘My Self, the Fetus’ has grown, like the self it questions. Some of the live performances have been witnessed by many; others lived quietly, without an audience. But always, the work remains a site of intimate transformation. The process is the work.

LR Drip drip 🤡🩸 Analogue taken in 2020 by dearest

LR Drip drip 🤡🩸

Analogue taken in 2020 by dearest Rein van Leeuwen.
Hair by the greatest Mark van Westerop.
Styling by yours truly.

Photo two: after shot.
(Secretively reminiscing Blokker).

🔊SOCIALS TEASER ‘“Presence in Absence” Piece two’

🔊SOCIALS TEASER ‘“Presence in Absence” Piece two’ (2024)

‘“Presence in Absence”’ is a series by conceptual and performance artist Lisette Ros that she started in Mexico-City in 2023. She focuses on the perceptible act of presence in absence by examining ‘The Absent Body’.

Ros now defines this as: a state of being or sense of presence in which the body is absent which also engages in dialogue about the body.

PERFORMANCE PIECE TWO
‘“Presence in Absence” Piece two’ is the second live performance experiment in this series open to public. One wonders whether the physical presence will intensify into vibrant prominence or remain merely a conceptual exploration.

SNIPPET REEL:
Ros places herself in a precisely measured cabine that only allows very minimal, specific bodily movements and certain postures in which the artist can position herself in order to slowly and carefully create an increasingly visible presence.

*The white, custom-developed mixture is harmless to the material, my body and the environment.
⬜️

“Presence in Absence” series ‘Piece three’ (Apri

“Presence in Absence” series
‘Piece three’
(April 2024: hand-stitched pillow, white shape painted on floor, 6 sleeping pills, Velcro adjustables on floor). Analogues by Studio Sati.
—

CONCEPT
“Presence in Absence” is a new series by conceptual and performance artist Lisette Ros that she started in Mexico-City in 2023. She focuses on the perceptible act of presence in absence by examining ‘The Absent Body’.

Ros now defines this as: work which explicitly uses the body’s absence as a way of making the body more visible.

Each performance serves as a rhythmic journey, embracing diverse perspectives in real-time, which are translated into the exhibition space in the form of residue artifacts, installation objects and temporary traces of Ros’ physicality. Insights, progress, and audience reactions become integral to the ongoing deepening of the research into presence in absence, fostering development and evolution. This process necessitates deliberate delay.

PERFORMANCE PIECE THREE (2024)
In this live performance experiment, Ros grapples with her own presence, manipulating control and consciousness by taking-in a natural hypnotic. This has been part of her nightly ritual since 2014, as she suffers from DSPS (Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome).
🤍⬜️

Impression. In this exhibition at Museum Sophiahof

Impression. In this exhibition at Museum Sophiahof, Indisch Herinneringscentrum in The Hague, artist Lisette Ros displayed ‘(the Act of) Uprooting’ as part of her research into (her) unfamiliar roots.

• TEXTILE, CLAY AND HAIR  In the ‘Ontdek Meer’ space, Ros’ signature suit – worn in her videos and performance – is on display. Made together with a local tailor in Solo from burlap-like fabric, the suit reflects traditional Javanese attire. The suit is an essential part of the entire work. Lisette carried it and its leftover material with her for months, and now it’s been exhibited without her presence.

Also featured is a batu bata brick she handmade in Bandung from Javanese clay soil, sun-dried and embedded with her pulled-out blond dyed hair, a personal element of her performative research method. This action symbolizes her exploration of suffering, endurance, merging Ros’ nature with that of the location, and a way of approaching her unfamiliar roots.

• VIDEO WORK: ‘(the Act of) Uprooting’ in IDN In this video work Lisette Ros yearns to unearth secrets from our (family’s) past in what is now Indonesia, understanding that they are key to her (our) identity, -memory and -sense of belonging.

Ros searches for the essence by thoroughly uprooting. ‘Uprooting’ is associated with helplessness, shock, fear, mourning – a feeling of loss of identity and control. Of not belonging.

• TBA VIDEO WORK: ‘(the Act of) Uprooting’ in NL On Dutch ground the artist digs further beneath the surface, reaches for Mother Earth and searches for the essence. Ros needs to change her technique, because the sumptuous Mother Earth is generally covered in The (urban) Netherlands; she has to roughly make way for a neatly calculated ‘urban planning’; securely hidden under leveled asphalt, concealed by stable brickwork and the like.

Also on display is a selection of archive material and handpicked flowers by Ros’ grandfather. 1917 – 1980s

More to be found on lisetteros.com. With special thanks to Museum Sophiahof, Indisch Herinneringscentrum, Cultuurfonds and photographer Sanne Frich. 🙏🤎

LR Parisienne for The Craze. By powerwoman Mila va

LR Parisienne for The Craze.
By powerwoman Mila van der Linden.

Special love to Indiana Voss.
Analogue shot by dearest Nick van Tiem.

And special thanks to everybody involved.
🧡🥂

In this performance work, titled ‘(the Act of) Upr

In this performance work, titled ‘(the Act of) Uprooting’, Lisette Ros yearns to unearth secrets from our (family’s) past, understanding that they are key to her (our) identity, -memory and -sense of belonging.

In the garden of the Luther Museum in Amsterdam, Lisette Ros presents the live performance ‘(the Act of) Uprooting,’ marking its Dutch debut. The five-hour live performance delves into themes of rooting and uprooting, inspired by Ros’s grandfather, uprooted and emigrated from Java to The Netherlands as a child in 1926. On Dutch ground the artist digs further beneath the surface, reaches for Mother Earth and searches for the essence. Ros needs to change her technique, because the sumptuous Mother Earth is generally covered in (urban) Netherlands; she has to roughly make way for a neatly calculated ‘urban planning’; securely hidden under leveled asphalt, concealed by stable brickwork and the like. Ros continues to dig deeper, exploring her personal and historical connection to Amsterdam, the city where her mother was born and raised and where she herself now lives and works.

The museum also showcases the video work ‘(the Act of) Uprooting’ created in Indonesia, and a ‘batu bata’ brick handmade from Javanese clay ground and Ros’s extracted hair, which she uses as material in her work. The act of pulling out strands of hair, including their roots, is part of her physical and performative research method. It is an approach to suffering and endurance, merging Lisette’s nature with that of the location, while seeking connection with her unknown roots.

The site-specific installation, the circle, which was re-created above the surface during the live performance launch of ‘(the Act of) Uprooting’ in Solo, Central-Java in 2023 is now continued, locally constructed and rebuild in the garden of the Luther Museum in Amsterdam in 2024.

Thank you to everybody involved in realizing this. To be continued soon. Photos by Victor Wennekes. 🤎🌱

Alles voor Neerlands legende Bas Jan Ader! Deze

Alles voor Neerlands legende Bas Jan Ader!

Deze keer in Bonne Suits op de Oudeschans👖💙

Cowgrrrllll influences part of Lisette Ros’ personal favorites from Mexico. Open for shoots n styling jobs, howdy! 🏹

In collaboration with Arthood Collective, we came

In collaboration with Arthood Collective, we came together to experience my new transformative workshop titled ‘Your Roots’. This workshop was newly developed in Indonesia, linked to my artistic practice, and is now debuting in The Netherlands.

Lisette guided us through a series of repetitive exercises and meditative endurance practices, encouraging us to slow down and engage fully with each moment. By taking deliberate time with each part of the workshop, we moved beyond surface thoughts and feelings, reaching deeper layers of meaning and emotion. These intentional pauses allowed us to carefully select words, movements, and elements that resonated with us and the relation to (our) roots, helping to reveal nuanced stories and emotions held within.

This methodical approach enabled each participant to embody the process, deconstructing identification and uncovering insights that might remain hidden. Through these repetitive exercises and Lisette’s verbal / non-verbal approach, we connected more intimately with our pasts, identities, and inner narratives.

The session left us feeling deeply grounded and connected—to ourselves, each other, and the histories that shape us. Thank you for creating a space of patience, reflection, and exploration.

Looking forward to my next group of participants! Thank you very much for everyone involved 🌱🤎.

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