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Femmy Otten - The Mountains and the Vulva, 2024 - Castel Gardena / Fischburg

Femmy Otten, The Mountains and the Vulva, 2024. Installation with Three Sculptures in Linden Wood. Variable Dimensions. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina 9. Supported by Mondriaan Fund and The Embassy and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo

Femmy Otten’s research celebrates the human body in all its parts, and is characterised by absolute freedom. The artist shifts naturally between woodworking, pencil drawings, tempera, paintings and performance, intertwining references to works from classical antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Otten thus grafts into an ancient tradition, but chooses to portray bodies excluded from the art of the past, thus filling in the gaps of history. The result is timeless works that address universal themes such as love, fluidity between genders and motherhood, but which may also be viewed a series of self-portraits. “My intimacy is my activism; shame is a lack of empathy with oneself,” says the artist in the verses she composed for The Parliament of Marmots.

At Castel Gardena, Otten presents a new series of works: The Mountains and the Vulva, in which the artist adopts universal symbols of fertility such as the vulva, recurring in various cultures and eras, which is at the same time an intimate representation, strongly connected to her life: “I want to bring together traditions with transgression, the future, perception and stories without a beginning or end.” Hourglass is a wooden work based on an earlier work, Days Undressed, which doubled, creates the shape of an hourglass. In the work, the passage of time is represented through parts of the human body: wrinkles, folds and body parts marred by love are featured on the surface of the sculpture, constituting an hourglass. (M.P.)

FEMMY OTTEN 

Femmy Otten (1981, Amsterdam, Netherlands) lives and works in The Hague. Her work steps beyond the stereotyped view of gender, imposed standards, taboos, guilt or shame. Recently her work has been exhibited at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam; Kunsthal and SMAK, Gent; De Warande, Turnhout; M HKA, Antwerp; Drents Museum, Assen; Museum M, Louvain; Rijksmuseum, Fons Welters and P///akt, Amsterdam. She took part in the 14th Istanbul Biennial. Her work is represented in public and private collections, including SCHUNCK* Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Museum Voorlinden, M HKA, Drents Museum and AkzoNobel Foundation. She was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam and Atelier Holsboer, Cité Internationales des Arts in Paris. In 2013 she was the recipient of the de Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs.

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Femmy Otten - The Mountains and the Vulva, 2024 - Castel Gardena / Fischburg

Femmy Otten, The Mountains and the Vulva, 2024. Installation with Three Sculptures in Linden Wood. Variable Dimensions. Commissioned by Biennale Gherdëina 9. Supported by Mondriaan Fund and The Embassy and Consulate General of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. Photo by Tiberio Sorvillo

Femmy Otten’s research celebrates the human body in all its parts, and is characterised by absolute freedom. The artist shifts naturally between woodworking, pencil drawings, tempera, paintings and performance, intertwining references to works from classical antiquity, the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Otten thus grafts into an ancient tradition, but chooses to portray bodies excluded from the art of the past, thus filling in the gaps of history. The result is timeless works that address universal themes such as love, fluidity between genders and motherhood, but which may also be viewed a series of self-portraits. “My intimacy is my activism; shame is a lack of empathy with oneself,” says the artist in the verses she composed for The Parliament of Marmots.

At Castel Gardena, Otten presents a new series of works: The Mountains and the Vulva, in which the artist adopts universal symbols of fertility such as the vulva, recurring in various cultures and eras, which is at the same time an intimate representation, strongly connected to her life: “I want to bring together traditions with transgression, the future, perception and stories without a beginning or end.” Hourglass is a wooden work based on an earlier work, Days Undressed, which doubled, creates the shape of an hourglass. In the work, the passage of time is represented through parts of the human body: wrinkles, folds and body parts marred by love are featured on the surface of the sculpture, constituting an hourglass. (M.P.)

FEMMY OTTEN 

Femmy Otten (1981, Amsterdam, Netherlands) lives and works in The Hague. Her work steps beyond the stereotyped view of gender, imposed standards, taboos, guilt or shame. Recently her work has been exhibited at Stedelijk Museum Schiedam; Kunsthal and SMAK, Gent; De Warande, Turnhout; M HKA, Antwerp; Drents Museum, Assen; Museum M, Louvain; Rijksmuseum, Fons Welters and P///akt, Amsterdam. She took part in the 14th Istanbul Biennial. Her work is represented in public and private collections, including SCHUNCK* Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, Museum Voorlinden, M HKA, Drents Museum and AkzoNobel Foundation. She was a resident artist at the Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten in Amsterdam and Atelier Holsboer, Cité Internationales des Arts in Paris. In 2013 she was the recipient of the de Volkskrant Beeldende Kunst Prijs.