Artist

Maartje Wegdam & Nienke Huitenga Broeren

Maartje Wegdam Maartje Wegdam is an independent documentary director exploring personal and psychological perspectives on what makes us human through innovative ways of storytelling. She previously directed the award winning feature documentary No Place for a Rebel about former child soldier Opono Opondo. Sixteen years after Opono was kidnapped by the rebel army LRA he returns home as an adult war commander. In the documentary you follow Opono in his attempts to find his place in civil society while coming to terms with being a victim as well as perpetrator. The film was screened at national and international film festivals and had a theatrical release. Over the years, Maartje has been developing a hands-on method whereby she explores her subjects closely together with her protagonists. She always records her research in film or audio, gradually finding the story through collaborative moments. The story then is further developed hand in hand with the form or medium. In the case of Lacuna the idea to use VR came from the research conversations in which Sonja recalls her first person memories in present time. Around that idea the work of Lacuna slowly took shape in close collaboration with the multidisciplinary team. Nienke Huitenga Broeren Immersive director Nienke Huitenga Broeren blends digital art and immersive experiences. Her creative career unfolds through captivating online transmedia work like Human Birdwings and The Modular Body (by Floris Kaayk). The latter claimed the prestigious Golden Calf in 2016 for pioneering interactivity. Her first VR work ROZSYPNE (2019), in co-direction with Lisa Weeda, depicts the onset of the war in East Ukraine in 2014 and the downing of flight MH17. It premiered in competition at IDFA DocLab. Last fall she explored generative techniques in audio, where she created DRIFT (2024) together with VPRO Medialab. A post-climate Netherlands emerges for your ears, co-written by writer Minem Sezgin, AI and algorithmic processes. Her artistic practice is influenced by an interdisciplinary approach to mediated experiences: technology is never the starting point in her work, yet an important tool for addressing societal, cultural and personal experiences. Through collaborative projects like the consensus-debate-experience WINWIN (with hacker James Bryan Graves) and This Conversation is Off the Record (by Nirit Peled) she explores her fascination with how technology shapes our perception of humanity. Operating from Utrecht, she heads Studio ZZZAP.