Sarah Vanhee


Sarah Vanhee is an artist, performer, researcher and author whose work has been presented over the past twenty years on national and international stages, as well as within the fields of visual arts, film, and literature. She is known for original artistic forms that manifest both within and beyond institutional frameworks. Her work is driven by radical imagination and social engagement. Rooted in a performative practice, Vanhee operates transdisciplinary and cross-sectoral, often through co-creation. Art is a tool for her to foreground underrepresented narratives and realities. Vanhee has worked in theatres, hospitals, libraries, community centers, prisons, private living rooms, open fields, corporate meeting rooms, and more. Recent works include Long Live Lust (video installation), The Beach (stage performance), words service (public service), bodies of knowledge (nomadic classroom), collected screams (lecture performance), The Making of Justice (film), and Oblivion (performance), among others.

While deeply rooted in local contexts, Vanhee’s oeuvre has been presented internationally in a wide range of venues and festivals, including KFDA, Festival d'Automne, Wiener Festwochen, Festival TransAmériques, Museo Reina Sofía, Teatre Lliure, Festival Actoral, BIT Teatergarasjen, HAU Hebbel am Ufer, Frascati, Van Abbemuseum,  Centre Pompidou-Metz, etc.

As an author, Vanhee collaborated on Untranslatables and published Lecture For Every One (APE), The Miraculous Life of Claire C (Onomatopee), and TT (Campo). She has published numerous texts in both artistic and academic contexts. In 2022, she obtained her artistic PhD at ARIA and KCA.

As a researcher, long-standing and recurring areas of interest include knowledge and knowledge-sharing, law and justice, corporeality and sexuality. Currently (2026-2027) Vanhee is conducting research on the artistic representation of gender-based violence.

Vanhee is active as a public speaker, guest professor, advisor, dramaturge, and mentor.

  • Hear Hear Podcast (viernulvier)
    Luisteren, kijken en praten, Madonna Lenaert
    07/05/2025
  • Documenta 42 (2)
    Manyone: (A) History?, Natalie Gielen
    2025
  • Performing Live Akademia Network
    Contextual art practices and curatorship - learning as a movement, live talk with Silvia Bottiroli and Sarah Vanhee accompanied by Vânia Rodrigues
    05/04/23
  • ACT interview series
    Sarah Vanhee: “Impact? It’s very unspectacular, really”, Arie Lengkeek & Jacco Van Uden
    05/04/23
  • Forum+
    Listening to Listening, Sarah Vanhee & Flore Herman
    Autumn 2021
  • Re-Story
    We decide now: ‘this is a moment before’, Mischa Verheijden & Elke Leyman
    04/21
  • Grand Reunion, Dare to Care
    In conversation with Zornitsa Stoyanova & Sarah Vanhee, Renate Piotrowska-Auffret
    02/21
  • Reshape
    The art institution as a hole in the ground, Sarah Vanhee
    22/02/2020
  • Alternatives Theatrales
    Sarah Vanhee nous lance des signes que nous pourrions attraper par la main, Mathilde Maillard
    22/12/20
  • Into the City, Onto the Stage
    Unlikely Collaborations with the City A Late Summer Soil Talk. Published through APAP and Bruno publishing (ed. Alexander Roberts and Ásgerður G. Gunnarsdóttir), Marta Keil & Sarah Vanhee
    2020
  • DRAFF
    Suzanne Walsh and Sarah Vanhee in conversation
    22/10/19
  • Reina Sofia - Estudio
    Podcast with Manyone (first part in English)
    17/06/19
  • Die Presse
    Gut Gebrüllt, Barbara Petsch
    05/19
  • Veem House for Performance
    A conversation with Sarah Vanhee "the dark is not a place to be afraid of"
    27/12/18
  • NTR Periodismo critico
    Apuesta por ficción para revelar verdad
    2018
  • Kunstenpunt - re-framing the international
    The need for a different language, Tom Van Imschoot
    02/03/18
  • Interrupting the City
    How to dare, interrupt, intrude, fictionalize and scream for a public — Interview with Sarah Vanhee. Eds. Sander Bax, Pascal Gielen, Bram Ieven, Uitgeverij Valiz Amsterdam, Bojana Cvejic
    2016
  • Forum
    Sarah Vanhee over onderzoek in de kunstpraktijk, Tessa Overbeek & Yannick Geens
    Autumn 2016
  • Recto:Verso, Halfleeg of halfvol?
    Dubbelgesprek met Karim Bennamar
    2015
  • H ART
    De muren waar we voor kiezen, Pieter Van Bogaert
    2013
  • Een sluipende guerrilla
    Ons Erfdeel, Evelyne Coussens
    2011
  • Jaarverslag Frascati
    Een taal voor dat waarover gesproken moet worden, Lex Bohlmeijer
    2009