Lisette Ros

Conceptual performance artist

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🇳🇱May / June 26: ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’ exhibition, Rozet Arnhem
🇳🇱🇮🇩Nov 25 – Oct 26: ‘(the Act of) Smell-ing’ monthly contribution, DansMuseum, NDD

In 2025, being an artist in resident in Yogyakarta

In 2025, being an artist in resident in Yogyakarta, I conducted an abstinence-based performance experiment as part of ’(the Act of) Smell-ing’, the second embodiment of work deriving from my research project ‘My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots’ (2023—current).

For 172-hours, one week until the opening of my solo exhibition at Galeri Lorong, I refrained from basic artificial scents while wearing the same cotton shirt continuously; allowing the body’s natural odor print to emerge. This deliberate withdrawal from cosmetic regimes functioned as a decolonial gesture: resisting imposed standards of bodily neutrality, cleanliness, and social acceptability. The process treats the body as a living archive: the textile gradually absorbing traces of daily movement, climate, rest, sleep, and duration. The resulting material holds lived time. Scent becomes document. The body becomes carrier.

This performance experiment forms part of a broader participatory research trajectory investigating olfactory memory as a medium through which ancestral presence, intimacy, and cultural transmission can be accessed beyond the visual domain.

A new iteration of this work and the debut of the performance experiment in Western-Europe will unfold soon at Rozet in Arnhem, NL. (Starting May 6th).

Aligned to this, my fifth ChangeMakers contribution for NDD is now available online, on which you can read more about this experiment.

Further developments forthcoming. Thank you to all collaborators! 🤍

Workshop Weekend Indonesian Institute of Arts Yogy

Workshop Weekend
Indonesian Institute of Arts Yogyakarta (ISI)
By Artist: Lisette Ros

Title: ‘Your Roots’
*An impression—find more impressions on lisetteros.com.

! This workshop will take place in Amsterdam on February 21st !
DM FOR INFO / TO SIGN-UP.

Linked to her artistic practice, Lisette Ros develops and provides creative programs, workshops and performative lectures. Themes she addresses derive from her research-based art works.

This workshop took place in collaborative context with ISI in Yogyakarta as part of her long-term research ‘My Self, the (Unfamiliar) Roots’ (2023–present). On the basis of using their own body as a tool, (re)source and vessel, we work freely with ‘Your Roots’ and extract a ‘Piece of Your Roots’.

During the workshop Lisette works closely with the participants, gives each of them personal attention, therefore it is of high importance to create a safe, open and intimate space altogether.

Thank you to all people involved 🌱🤎

*An impression—find more impressions on lisetteros.com.

BTS hand-manufactured pills, three days of pill-ma

BTS hand-manufactured pills, three days of pill-making. Fully self-developed (harmless) mixture.

‘“Presence in Absence” Piece four’—USE ME Edition (2025)
 Live opening performance by Lisette Ros and Appie Bood, ten-day ritual medicine intake during entire exhibition by Appie Bood, floor installation of hand-manufactured pills, A0-print of substance inventory, tablet hand-press machine, set of intake conditions, white hand-modified long sleeves. —   “Presence in Absence” is a series by artist Lisette Ros that she started in Mexico-City in 2023. Ros focuses on the perceptible act of presence in absence by examining ‘The Absent Body’.   PERFORMANCE During the opening performance, artists Lisette Ros and Appie Bood search for—and assemble the precise combination of substances that make up Bood’s daily intake. This act marks the beginning of a ten-day ritual in which Bood returns to the gallery at unspecified times to collect his medication from the floor installation and take it on site.

Through this shared gesture, Ros extends her ongoing investigation into “Presence in Absence”: rendering the absent body present through its substances, and exposing the fragile tension between care and control, sedation and endurance.

PIECE FOUR
The introduction to this new work extends the series into a collaborative context within the group exhibition USE ME, at Galerie de Schans, initiated by Dutch artist Appie Bood. Including artists Aukje Dekker, Melle Hammer, Ray Fuego, Agata Zwierzynska and Lisette Ros, generously supported by AFK.
 Development of this new work coming soon. Thank you to everyone involved.

‘“Presence in Absence” Piece four’—USE ME Edition

‘“Presence in Absence” Piece four’—USE ME Edition (2025)
 Live opening performance by Lisette Ros and Appie Bood, ten-day ritual medicine intake during entire exhibition by Appie Bood, floor installation of hand-manufactured pills, A0-print of substance inventory, tablet hand-press machine, set of intake conditions, white hand-modified long sleeves. —   “Presence in Absence” is a series by artist Lisette Ros that she started in Mexico-City in 2023. Ros focuses on the perceptible act of presence in absence by examining ‘The Absent Body’.   PERFORMANCE During the opening performance, artists Lisette Ros and Appie Bood search for- and assemble the precise combination of substances that make up Bood’s daily intake. This act marks the beginning of a ten-day ritual in which Bood returns to the gallery at unspecified times to collect his medication from the floor installation and take it on site.

The scattered pills—magnesium, calcium, paracetamol, Passiflora relaxation pills, rheumatism tablets, sulfasalazine tablets and vitamin D—form both a landscape of residue and a body in absence. What usually dissolves within the body re-emerges as visible matter: a trace of maintenance, dependency and survival.

Through this shared gesture, Ros extends her ongoing investigation into “Presence in Absence”: rendering the absent body present through its substances, and exposing the fragile tension between care and control, sedation and endurance.

PIECE FOUR
The introduction to this new work extends the series into a collaborative context within the group exhibition USE ME, at Galerie de Schans, initiated by Dutch artist Appie Bood. Including artists Aukje Dekker, Melle Hammer, Ray Fuego, Agata Zwierzynska and Lisette Ros, generously supported by AFK.

Where the previous piece explored Ros’ own presence (in absence) through the ingestion of a natural hypnotic—an evening ritual tied to her experience with DSPS—this fourth piece shifts focus to another body. It translated Bood’s daily intake of medicinal substances (specified to pills) into an absent anatomy.
 Development of this new work coming soon. Thank you everyone, especially Appie Bood.   Photos by Fee Golin. 🤍

SHORT INTRODUCTION OF: ‘Where Words Wane: Smell, M

SHORT INTRODUCTION OF:
‘Where Words Wane: Smell, Memory, and Ros’ Uprooting’

Article/Essay by Gabriella Gasparini and Lisette Ros Published by NERO Editions, December 9th

“What’s your first recollection of a smell?”

One of us asked the question – the other paused. It soon became apparent that this kind of inquiry wouldn’t seek clarity, nor would it beg for a quick response. It rather asked for something different: a feeling, an emotion, something embedded in the folds and crevices of the body, long before the mind could summon the adjectives to describe.

The conversations between conceptual and performance artist Lisette Ros and writer Gabriella Gasparini began before this question even took shape. But the subject of smell had been seeping into our exchanges from as early as our third call – as if, without our knowing, scent had already begun to insinuate itself into the fabric of the project.

Call III ⧫ 27.07.24 ⧫ GG Rome ~ 16:00 GMT+2 ⧫ LR South Jakarta ~ 21:00 GMT+7

You were in South Jakarta. I was in Rome – 6,728 miles apart. I could see you, hear you. We could feel the soft fatigue of blue light pooling into our retinas. And yet, across the screens, we found ourselves drawn to the one sense that had not yet been fully co-opted by the digital age: smell.

…

Or continue the full read in your own time: https://www.neroeditions.com/where-words-wane/�

‘“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 to 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).
🤍⬜️

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