Sarah Vanhee (°1980, Oostende, BE)

Sarah Vanhee is an artist, performer and author. Her transdisciplinary work travels inbetween civil spaces and institutional art fields. She worked in open fields, prisons, private living rooms, theatres, on public canvases, in corporate meeting rooms, etc. Recent works include, amongst others, Mémé (stage performance), bodies of knowledge (school), undercurrents (intervention), collected screams (lecture-performance), Unforetold (stage performance), The Making of Justice (film), Oblivion (stage performance), Untitled (meetings in private houses), Lecture For Every One (series of intrusions), ...


While strongly embedded locally, Vanhee's work has been presented widely internationally in diverse contexts such as Wiener Festwochen (AT), Museo Reina Sofia (Madrid), Kunstenfestivaldesarts (Brussels), FTA (Montreal), Festival d’Automne (Paris), Festival Actoral (Marseille), PuSh Festival (Vancouver), Jihlavava IDFF, Van Abbe Museum (Eindhoven), Centre Pompidou (Metz), Short Theatre (Rome), iDans (Istanbul), Printemps de Septembre (Toulouse), Forum Alpbach, Noorderzon (Groningen), Theater Frascati (Amsterdam), Contour (Mechelen), etc. She co-published Untranslatables and wrote The Miraculous Life of Claire C and TT, as well as other texts. She regularly collaborates with CAMPO (Ghent) and Hiros (Brussels). Vanhee was founding member of Manyone vzw and BOK vzw. She holds a PHD from ARIA (Antwerp University) and KCA (Antwerp Royal Conservatory).


Vanhee is currently active on words service. At words service, a words provider freely assists everyone who wants to say or write something but cannot find the words. Meanwhile, Vanhee is developing two new creations that both engage with sexuality: a video installation with longer living people; and a stage-piece with teenagers.

May 2023, Vanhee premiered a new stage-piece Mémé, a performance with puppets, ghosts and children, based on the life of her both grandmothers. The piece premiered during Kunstenfestivaldesarts and has been touring since then.

In 2022 Vanhee finalized her doctoral research on bodies of knowledge. In the meantime, BOK - bodies of knowledge was re-created in different places in different cities.

In 2021 Sarah Vanhee worked on BOK - bodies of knowledge a place for the -mainly oral- exchange of non-dominant, underexposed and/or suppressed knowledge amongst different bodies of knowledge constituting society. BOK could be found on different public squares and parks in Brussels.

2020 marked a closure and a new beginning for Lecture For Every One: Sarah Vanhee published a book on 7 years Lecture For Every One. This was being presented with an accompanying performance We Are Before. Meanwhile, Vanhee started a writing-lab with twelve Brussels teenagers writing their own Lecture For Every One. From September 2020 on, bodies of knowledge took place in Brussels.

In 2019 Sarah Vanhee created the lecture performance collected screams – premiered at Museo Reina Sofia in Madrid in January, as well as a new site-specific work undercurrents, premiered at Wiener Festwochen in May. She started developing bodies of knowledge, a.o. in Manchester. 

May 2018 was the premiere of Unforetold, a piece for black box, made in close collaboration with seven small beings between 8 and 11 years old. Unforetold is a work in complete darkness, as a magical place where everything is still or again possible, and small creatures evoke new worlds into being. The piece is currently on tour throughout Europe.

January 2017 - Sarah Vanhee released her first film The Making of Justice, in collaboration with seven long term detainees. This followed a lengthy research project exploring on the one hand the discrepancy between the formal, institutional system of justice versus justice as a lived experience; on the other hand the human gap between the exoticised, eroticised Hollywood gangsters, and the monsters created by mainstream media.

Oblivion premiered November 2015 and has been touring since then. Oblivion is a performance with everything Sarah Vanhee would have thrown away during one year working and living. A slow celebration of things unhidden.

In 2014 Lecture For Every One continued spreading all over Europe in diverse languages, intruding into over 250 different gatherings. Vanhee re-made Untitled in the neigbourhood of Forest/Vorst, in collaboration with Kunstenfestivaldesarts and Wiels.

August 2013, Sarah Vanhee made an installation together with inmates of the prison in Mechelen (BE): I screamed and I screamed and I screamed. This project was hosted by Contour 2013.

Spring 2013 Lecture For Every One took off, a series of unannounced artistic interventions in different places where people gather together for a specific purpose, either private or professional. Lecture For Every One is a short lecture on contemporary society as a co-creation by every-one, traveling from banks to football teams and city councils.

Untitled consists of a series of individual visits to private houses where people talk about the artworks they have at home. Untitled is being developed and presented in different cities, in collaboration with local art venues and citizens. Untitled (Leuven), Untitled (Frankfurt) and Untitled (Gent) took place in 2012.

In 2011 Vanhee created the piece Turning Turning (a choreography of thoughts), in collaboration with two performers and a number of scholars from the fields of philosophy, neuro-linguistics, psychoanalysis, mathematics and performance theory.

The C-Project, realized in 2010, employed fiction and performance for meetings in real and virtual public space that resulted in the novel The Miraculous Life of Claire C and a series of public interviews A Rendez-Vous with Claire C.

In 2009 she organized the first edition of the Great Public Sale of Unrealized but Brilliant Ideas, a public auction project that has since been produced by several venues. She also developed the publication Untranslatables – a guide to translingual dialogue (in collaboration with Elisa Marchesini, Christoph Schwarz and Yolande de los Bueis).

Earlier she wrote and directed the performance-installation WeUsAll, and wrote and performed the lecture-performance Me and My Stranger. In 2008 she choreographed the dance duet How They Disappeared. In 2007 she graduated at the Amsterdam School of the Arts with the performance 4000 trees, a red dress and an apple (possible story).
2023 - Conversation with Silvia Bottiroli, Sarah Vanhee and Vania Rodrigues - Performing Live Akademia Network – Member of PHD Committee Katinka de Jonge (Hasselt,BE) | Artist Talk for Another Route/Artsadmin (Ghent, BE) | Artist talk to the screening of Riddles of the Sphinx, Stadtkino/Wiener Festwochen (AT) | Masterclass at Festival TransAmériques, Montreal (CA) | Public Talk Setting the stage - knowledge and performance – Summer University Antwperp (BE) | Workshop Guestfest KCA (Antwerp,BE)
2022 - BOK presentation at Evening School of gentle disarming (Antwerp, BE) | BOK sessions at NTGentXEtcetera (Ghent, BE) | BOK at Breaking The Spell (Leipzig, Munich, Warsaw) | Masterclass Kask (Ghent, BE) | Juror Masters Kask (Ghent, BE) | Artist Talk Airwaves (IT) | Masterclass Summerschool CAMPO (Ghent, BE)
2021 - The Class, commissioned work by Kunstenfestivaldesarts, with BOK, Atheneum Brussel, Institut St.-Marie (Brussels, BE) | Making worlds, Artist Talk & Workshop at Tranzit, Bratislava (SK) | All cells in your body becoming ears, lecture-performance for On Boards Biennale, Antwerp (BE) | BOK workshop, 10days4ideas, La Bellone, Brussels (BE) | Artist Residency at KAOS, Brussels (BE) | No Cure For Life, commissioned work icb Britt Hatzius at Alpbach Forum (AT) | Masterclass KCA, Antwerp (BE) | Panel debat Etcetera - RITS
2020 - Places to be together, keynote lecture for Dramaturgische Gesellschaft at NTG (Gent, BE) | Expanding Academy, research group with Judith Wielander and Nico Dockx | Gentse Feestendebatten, De Kunsten in het nieuw Vlaams cultureel regiem | In de soep, Art as education-art as social change, Vooruit (Gent, BE)
2019 - Manyone in focus in Reina Sofia, Madrid (ES) for Estudio | Masterclass on lecture-performance St. Lucas Antwerp (BE) | Masterclass MA Reina Sofia, Madrid (ES) | Exhibition Lab on Oblivion and other works, Swedish Cultural Heritage Board, Stockholm (SE) | Residency in Centrale Fies, Dro (I) | DRAFF workshop and podcast, Dublin (IE) | Residency at Tenancy project/Meet The Neighbours, Quarantine, Manchester (UK) | Text Contribution on BOK for Rekto:Verso | Writing Residency at La Bellone, Brussels (BE) | Artist Speech for Kunstenpunt at lancering Landschapstekening, Antwerp (BE) | Artistic advice for The Users, Britt Hatzius | Speech for Meet The Neigbours: The Weekend, Manchester (UK)
2018 - Curating ARIA seminar on “art in times of political repression”, Extra City, Antwerp (BE) | Participation seminar “the fantastic institution” #2, BUDA, Kortrijk (BE) | Manyone in Focus, BUDA, Kotrijk (BE) | Workshop at Yivi project Yanhuitlan, Oaxaca, Mexico (MEX) | Opening Speech Noorderzon Festival, Groningen (NL) | Presentation Metrolab “About Cities in the metabolic loop”, Brussels (BE) | Participation and lecture seminar “the fantastic institution” #3, Skogen, Gothenburg (SE) | Masterclass Drama, Conservatory Antwerp (BE) | Masterclass Performing Knowledge MA St. Lucas, Antwerp (BE)
2017 - Lecture "On the art institution as a hole in the ground" at symposium "The fantastic institutions" BUDA, Kortrijk (BE) | Lecture "On hidden commons at seminar “Artistic constitutions of the common city”, ARIA, Antwerp (BE) | Masterclass at Theaterformen, Hannover (DE) | Guest at Flanders-Balkan Express Caraven meeting, Ljubljana (SL) | Masterclass at St. Lucas school of arts, Brussels (BE) | Guest at Alpbach Legal Forum, Alpbach, Tirol (AT) | Mentoring masters at DAS Theatre, Amsterdam (NL) | Lecture and workshop at LUST, Helsinki (FI)
2016 - Manyone in focus at Vooruit, Ghent (BE) | Launch poster project Absent Images (BE) | Master Class Theatre Sciences Ugent (BE) | Lecture ARIA, Antwerp (BE) | Artist Speech, opening KFDA, Brussels (BE) | Public Talk with Daniel Blanga-Gubbay, KFDA&ERG, Brussels (BE) | Artist Speech at The Art of a Culture of Hope, Gessnerallee, Zurich (CH) | Artist speech and panel discussion at VEEM, Amsterdam (NL) | Research and lecture On Justice, BUDA, Kortrijk (BE) | Artist Talk at Kiasma, Helsinki (FI) | Workshop NEXT Festival, BUDA, Kortrijk (BE) | Artist Lab at Frascati Theater, Amsterdam (NL)
2015 - Mentoring master drama R’m Aharoni, Kask, Gent (BE) | Theatre text “Wild” for Anne Thuot | Text contribution to “The Time We Share” (KFDA) | Artist talk “Moving Words”, seminar organized by Mette Ingvartsen at Uniarts Stockholm (SE) | Text contribution to “Interrupting the city” (ed. Pascal Gielen) | Text contribution to “Choreopoetic” (ed. Eva-Cecilie Richardsen), Oslo academy of arts (NO) | Text contribution to Recto:Verso (BE) | Artist contribution to Etcetera (BE)
2014 - Workshop at the Sandberg Institute, Amsterdam (NL) | Talk at Goethe Institute, Amsterdam (NL) | Presentation & Panel discussion 'Phantasm and Politics' HAU, Berlin (DE) | Public Talk at 'Performing Protest', KUL, Leuven (BE) | Residency at CAMPO, Ghent (BE) | Talk at 'encounters', AHK, Amsterdam (NL) | Residency at Pianofabriek, Brussels (BE) | Participation in 'Thinking Together', curated by Berno Odo Polzer, Darmstadt (DE) | Presentation at Enough Room for Space, Brussels (BE) | Workshop for master students film & photography, St. Lukas, Brussels (BE)
2013 - Residencies in STUK, Leuven and CAMPO, Ghent (BE) | Workshop Screaming at CAMPO, Ghent (BE) | Public Talk at Open Boek, Mechelen (BE) | Workshop at Summerschool, Rits, Brussels (BE) | Public Talk Contour, Mechelen (BE) | Founding of Manyone, Brussels (BE)
2012 - Contribution to ‘(des formes de vie)’ by Fanck Leibovici, Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris (FR) | Public Talk at ‘Inspiratie - over de grens’, Spui 25, Amsterdam (NL) | Turning Turning workshop, invited by Sarma & Workspace Brussels (BE) | Turning Turning workshop, invited by Brut, Vienna (AT) | The Miraculous Life of Claire C part of the artist novel collection ‘Booklovers’, curated by David Maroto and Joanna Zielińska | Turning Turning (a choreography of thoughts) selected for the VSCD mimeprijs 2012, Amsterdam (NL) | Rrrr-group Brussels (BE) | Text contribution to Untitled 4, Christine Desmedt | Publication short novel TT, commisioned by CAMPO, Ghent (BE) | Workshop at La Cambre Fashion departement, Brussels (BE) | Participation in public debate on Slow art, Open House, Brussels (BE)
2011 - Residency Campo Kunstencentrum, Ghent (B) | Lecture on Untranslatables Brut, Vienna (A) | Congress on Transdisciplinary art Moskou (RU) | Talk at Sarma Salon #2, Time is on my side Brussels (B) | Talk at SPIN Night #2, Selling matches in snow covered streets Brussels (B) | Readings Brussels (B) | Interview Dirk Pauwels Sarma Lab Popela's Paralipomena (B) | Masterclass Artez - Friends! Collaborate, interact, share, Arnhem (NL)
2010 - 'Strangers and Viruses’ : Correspondence with Dr. A.Kroes Volume magazine, Amsterdam (NL) | ‘Stranger’ evening: curated by Berthe Spoelstra, with Lex Bohlmeijer, Glenn Helberg a.o.. Manifesto, Something Raw, Amsterdam (NL) | Talk at debate on ‘the future of contemporary music’ Amsterdam (NL) | Res&Ref Kunstenfestivaldesarts, Brussels (B) | Performance with Dora Garcia Short Cut, Something Raw, Amsterdam (NL) | Residency at Impulstanz 8tension, Vienna (A)
2009 - ‘On Writing’, Correspondence with Marjolijn van Heemstra Volume magazine, Amsterdam (NL) | Dialogue with Aimar Pérez Galí ’Re-thinking performance, re-considering production’ | Lecture ‘The Imagined Performance’ ‘the Manifold Afterlives of Performance’, Stuk, Leuven (BE) – De Appel, Amsterdam (NL) | Residency in the frame of ‘as_tide’ on intercultural dialogue Brussels (BE), Biella (IT), Graz (AT), Barcelona (ES), Malta | Performance in ‘Nothing can surprise us’, choreography Andrea Bozic
2008 - Statement ‘Theater als tussenruimte’ EHIO, Oostende (BE) | Residency at “Unidee”, Fondazione Pistolletto Cittadellarte, Biella, (I) | Performance in ‘Still life with man and woman’, Andrea Bozic
2007 - Research project ‘Geen Naam’, with Carola Bärtschiger production Bonte Hond, Almere (NL) | Performance in ‘Broeders’, Jetse Batelaan | Performance in “Permanent Revolution” Sue de Beer Flacc, Genk (BE) | Talk ‘Theater en de dood' l’Usine op zondag, Het Veem (NL)
Into the City, Onto the Stage, Unlikely Collaborations with the City A Late Summer Soil Talk - Sarah Vanhee and Marta Keil Published through APAP and Bruno publishing (ed. Alexander Roberts and Ásgerður G. Gunnarsdóttir) (2020)
Recto:Verso, Halfleeg of halfvol? Dubbelgesprek met Karim Bennamar (2015) www.rektoverso.be | PDF