Marleine van der Werf (1985, CH/NL) is a filmmaker/visual artist with a documentary practice based in Rotterdam (NL) and Basel (CH). In her artistic research she explores how to immerse in someone else's experience. Through cinema, extended reality and multi-sensory technology Van der Werf creates haptic experiences. She collaborates with experts in the field of science, art and humanities. In these interdisciplinary projects Van der Werf combines knowledge of scientists and people with lived experiences to create immersive projects that challenge our understanding of the self and others. Recurrent themes are embodiment, identity and the perception of reality.
Her award winning projects have been broadcasted at television and shown at international art- and filmfestivals like IDFA (NL), Human Rights filmfestival Seoul (KR), FILE Festival in Sao Paolo (BR), Future of storytelling New York (USA) and Art Basel (CH). She won the NEXT Talent Award (Playgrounds Digital Art Festival) in 2018, the Scientist Award (Abu Dhabi Imagine Science filmfestival) and the ACT award (STRP) in 2019 and was awarded an interdisciplinary grantee of Sundance Institute (2021). In 2022/2023 she did the EMAP residency in Werkleitz, Halle (D) .
Van der Werf completed her Bachelor in Audiovisual Design at the St. Joost Art Academy and her Master Artistic Research in & through Cinema (with distinction) at the Dutch Film Academy. Currently she develops the multidisciplinary research project 'Disembodied' in collaboration with dancers, neuroscientists, designers and engineers exploring what our biological body means to us.
© Picture Katarina Jazbec
Rather than seeking definitive answers, the Dis_embodied Project stages experiential inquiries. Through artistic research-driven experiments, we create spaces where participants confront the instability of embodiment and reconsider the foundations of identity. If believing one does not exist can alter who one is, then the body is not merely a vessel but an active co-creator of selfhood. By investigating the limits and thresholds of embodiment, we aim to expand existing knowledge and invite new forms of dialogue between art, science, and lived experience—before the question of living without a body becomes no longer speculative, but real.