Mathilde ter Heijne facts for kids

Mathilde ter Heijne, born in France in 1969, is a Dutch artist who lives in Berlin. She creates art using video, performances, and installations. She studied art in Maastricht and Amsterdam. From 2011 to 2018, she was a professor of visual art in Kassel. Since 2018, she teaches visual arts and media at the University of the Arts in Berlin.

What Her Art Is About

Mathilde ter Heijne's art explores how different parts of a person's identity, like gender, race, and class, connect and affect their lives. She focuses on ideas from feminism.

Early Video Art

In the 1990s, her video art challenged old ideas about men and women in books and movies. She would re-create scenes and switch roles. For example, in her video Mathilde, Mathilde or her 2001 project Small Things End, Great things Endure, she looked at stories where women often ended up sad or dying. By "playing the victim," she cleverly changed who had the power. She showed that women are not just objects but strong people.

Woman To Go Project

In her more recent work, starting around 2005, Mathilde ter Heijne uses art to make a difference. She often invites people to take part in her art. In her project Woman To Go, she finds stories of women from the 1800s who are almost forgotten. She shares these stories in art spaces. This helps us remember these important lives and how they still connect to us today.

Rituals and Power

Ter Heijne also looks at how rituals and ceremonies can be a way for women to gain power. Historically, rituals have sometimes limited women, like in old marriage traditions. She points out how Dutch society in the 1600s often showed women as happy at home, but this could hide a lack of freedom. However, in other cultures, rituals have been a way for women to find strength or be saved.

In her installation Menschen Opfern, a sculpture of Mathilde ter Heijne stands in for a character named Iphigenia from an old Greek story. Iphigenia was saved from being sacrificed and became a priestess. In the art piece, sculptures of bodies lie on a stage. Music from an opera plays in the background. This shows how people can come together to share stories and experiences.

What People Say About Her Art

Oliver Koerner von Gustorf from ArtMag said that Mathilde ter Heijne's art "aims at what really hurts." He meant it shows how women are sometimes treated unfairly, how there can be hidden problems in families, and how women might sacrifice themselves.

Sophia Trollmann, who wrote about an exhibition called "Performing Change," said that Mathilde ter Heijne "puts alternative ways of seeing... up for discussion." This means her art helps people think differently and see new possibilities.

Books About Her Work

• Mathilde ter Heijne: Performing Change. Museum für Neue Kunst – Städtische Museen Freiburg, Germany: Sternberg Press, 2015.
• Mathilde ter Heijne: Any Day Now. Kunsthalle Nürnberg im KunstKulturQuartier, Germany and Kunstmuseum Linz, Austria: Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Nürnberg 2010.
• Mathilde ter Heijne: If it's me, it's not me. Ostfilder, Germany: Hatje Cantz Verlag, 2008.
• Ingrid Calame, Mathilde ter Heijne, Jörg Wagner. Kunstverein Hannover, Germany, 2004.
• Mathilde ter Heijne: Tragedy. Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich, Switzerland: Revolver Publishing, 2002.

Places She Has Shown Her Art

• 2016 – Blood, Sweat and Tears, Galerie in Körnerpark, Berlin
• 2015 – It Will Be!, Kunstverein, Haus am Lützowplatz, Berlin
• 2014 – Performing Change, Museum für Neue Kunst Freiburg
• 2011 – Any Day Now, Lentos Museum, Linz
• 2010 – Any Day Now, Kunsthalle Nürnberg
• 2009 – Long Live Matriarchy!, Stedelijk Museum Bureau, Amsterdam
• 2006 – Woman To Go, Berlinische Galerie, Berlin
• 2005 – BASE 103, Götz Collection, Munich
• 2002 – Tragedy, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Zurich