Interior no. 61

Multidisciplinary photographer Marleen Sleeuwits, born in 1980 in Enschede, currently lives and works in The Hague. In 2001 she graduated from the Royal Academy of the Arts with a BA in photography, whereafter she obtained her MA in the same discipline at AKV|St. Joost in 2005. Marleen has a special eye for the alienating quality of seemingly nondescript, every-day-use spaces. Central to her work is the investigation of impersonal environments — places that could be anywhere and nowhere — such as vacant zones in airports, unoccupied corridors of hotels, and empty rooms in office buildings. Gradually, Marleen’s art practice developed from the gesture of photographing these areas, into the act of intervention. Her art twists the visual element of reality, plays with scale, and creates optical illusions. Moreover, through her emergence from behind the camera into the field of practice, she alternatingly challenges the role of photographer, sculptor, architect, or painter.