PLEUN VAN DIJK - is a speculative artist and designer fascinated by the ever-evolving world around her. The exponential speed at which science and technology are developing provides us with new opportunities and confronts us with complex ethical questions. These questions often stay abstract due to the complexity of scientific research papers. The limitations of text and spoken language make it almost impossible to envision the future impact of these inventions and how they could be influenced by the decisions we make today.

In her work, Pleun visualises and translates these futures into tangible speculative scenarios to contribute to the ethical debate. By triggering the viewer's imagination through multiple senses. Her works show the possible, impossible, utopian and dystopian outcomes of our seemingly insignificant decisions today. Through her artistic research, projects, lectures, and workshops Pleun aims to provide viewers with newfound perspectives that force us to reconsider the now.

Next to her own practice, Pleun also works as the curator of the Future Materials Bank at the Jan van Eyck Academie. The Future Materials Bank is an archive of materials that supports and promotes the transition towards ecologically conscious art and design practices. By collecting information and samples from makers around the world, the archive aims to inspire research and disseminate knowledge about sustainable materials.

EDUCATION
2018-2019, 2020-2021 MASTER with distinction, Central Saint Martins - University of the Arts London, Material Futures
2011–2016 BACHELOR, Design Academy Eindhoven, Man & Leisure
2013–2014 EXCHANGE, Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design, Textile department

UPCOMING

1 March - 30 April 2024 | ‘PEECH x Pleun van Dijk’ at PEECH | Copenhagen, DE

March - August 2024 | ‘Super power design’ at Center of Innovation and Design | Boussu, BE

23 September 2023 - 2025 | Space farming - Next Nature | at Evoluon | Eindhoven, NL


EXHIBITIONS

2023
23 September 2023 - 2025 | Space farming - Next Nature | at Evoluon | Eindhoven, NL

7 - 11 September | ‘ENJOY: in quest of pleasures’ at Maison & Objet | Paris, FR

3 - 27 June | ‘Clair-Obscure’ with Morph Collective at Les Moulins | Paris, FR

2022
20 - 24 January | Showroom exhibition by Cobalt agency at Paris Fashion Week | Paris, FR

2021
6 - 13 November | ‘Beftival’ at Mediamatic (Museum night) | Amsterdam, NL

16 - 24 October 2021 | ‘United Matters’ at Microlab - Dutch Design Week | Eindhoven, NL

18 - 26 September 2021 | ‘Surface Tension’ (online) at London Design Week | London, UK

24 June - 4 July | Graduate showcase | MA Material Futures - Central Saint Martins | London, UK

January - July | ‘Life on the Orsimaniara Planet’ at MHG Hamburg with Morph | Hamburg, DE

May - now | ‘Surface Tension’ (online) | London, UK

April - June 2021 | ‘The Unknown Mine Zone’ at Nieuw Dakota | Amsterdam, NL

January - April | ‘My Mother’s Daughter’ at SEA Foundation | Tilburg, NL

2020
June - October | ‘Bodydrift - Anatomies of the Future’
at Design Museum Den Bosch | Den Bosch, NL

February | ‘The Age of Entanglement’ at Stockholm Design Week | Stockholm, SE

2019
September | ‘Morph’ at Fey Arts | Paris, FR

September | ‘Extended views: From dusk to dawn’ at K11 | Guangzhou, CN

August | ‘The Age of …?’ at Form/Design Center | Malmö, SE

April | ‘Dissolving views’ at Salone del Mobile | Milano, IT

March | ‘In:Bodied’ at Arnold and Sheila Aronson Gallery, Parsons School of Design part of The New School | New York, US

2018
November - March | ‘Reshape’ bioart expo at MU Artspace | Eindhoven, NL

October | ‘Morph’ at Microlab - DDW | Eindhoven, NL

October | ‘La Totale’ at Les Moulins - Studio Orta | FR

June - July | ‘Human/Non-human - Today’s robots are tomorrow’s dinosaurs’ at Roskilde Festival | DK

May | ‘Nothing but flowers’ at Lodz Design Festival | PL

2017
December | ‘EXPOSED x Jesper Just’ at EYE museum | Amsterdam, NL

August | ‘Theater Festival Boulevard’ | Den Bosch, NL

July | ‘Future Generation’ at Amsterdam Fashionweek | Amsterdam, NL

June | ‘Fashion makes sense’ at Fashionclash Festival | Maastricht, NL

June | ‘One day collective’ at Droogdesign | Amsterdam, NL

April | ‘Design Academy Eindhoven #TVclerici’ at Salone del Mobile | Milano, IT

February - May | ‘Fashion VS Art’ at Schunck - Fashionclash | Heerlen, NL

January - June | Artist in residence at Springhouse | Amsterdam, NL

2016
October - November | ‘For Play’ at MU Artspace | Eindhoven, NL

October | ‘Graduationshow’ at Design Academy Eindhoven - DDW | Eindhoven, NL

February | ‘Ruimtevullers’ at Rotterdam Art Week | Rotterdam, NL

January | ‘Openday’ at Design Academy Eindhoven | Eindhoven, NL

2015
October | ‘Trajectories’ at Temporary Art Centre - DDW, Eindhoven, NL

‘CAMAC wallpaper competition’ at Heimtex trade show | Frankfurt, DE

2014
’Wallpapers’ at Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts, School of Design | Copenhagen, DK

ARTIST TALKS / LECTURES

2023
October | Lecture at Material Activism conference at Elisava / Master in Design Through New Materials | Barcelona, ES

October | ‘Future Materials’ Live podcast recording at Dutch Design Week - Innovationlabs #1: The Living Archive in the Klokgebouw (Strijp-S) | Eindhoven, NL

2022
November | Lecture at Material Activism conference at Elisava / Master in Design Through New Materials | Barcelona, ES

September | Lecture at Universitetet i Agder | Kristiansand, NO

October | Workshop at Fontys ArtCoDe | Tilburg, NL

August | Jury at CHART Architecture | Copenhagen, DK

18 May - 10 June | Teaching ‘New Moon of Moon World’ with Fred Erik at Fontys ArtCoDe | Tilburg, NL

March | Lecture at the 18th European Trend Day about the Future Materials Bank | Zürich, CH

February | Workshop at Fontys ArtCoDe | Tilburg, NL

January | Lecture at the Folkwang University of the Arts | Essen, DE

2021
September - November | Teaching ‘A Human Product’ at the Gerrit Rietveld Academie - DesignLab 3 | Amsterdam, NL

October | Guest lecture: ‘Future Materials Bank’ at Fontys | Eindhoven, NL

2020
October | Live interview: Designers Dialogues Pleun van Dijk & Hannah van Luttervelt for Blank Space Magazine at Dutch Design Week | NL

2018
June | Q&A: ‘Human/Non-human - Today’s robots are tomorrow’s dinosaurs’ at Roskilde Festival | DK

March | Guest lecture: ‘Deconstructing truth’ together with Alice Wong at Stroom | Den Haag, NL

2017
November | Guest lecture: ‘How to capture group identities through design research?’ at Fontys | Eindhoven, NL

August | Q&A: ‘Theater Festival Boulevard’ | Den Bosch, NL

June | Q&A: ‘The future of procreation’ at Springhouse | Amsterdam, NL

April | ‘Design date: Body and Identity’ Design Academy Eindhoven #TVclerici at Salone del Mobile, Depot Basel | Milano, IT

February | Artist talk: ‘The future of procreation’ at Springhouse | Amsterdam, NL

January | Artist talk: ‘What’s up? #94 at Pakhuis de Zwijger | Amsterdam, NL

2016
May | Artist talk at MMC congres | Eindhoven, NL

PUBLICATIONS

2023

May | Interview: ‘Objects of desire - in conversation with Pleun van Dijk’ at Behaving magazine | Print

January | Article ‘W łóżku z Bordo: artystka tworzy obiekty pożądania przyszłości przy użyciu nowej technologii’ at K MAG | Online

2022
December | Article: ‘Objects of Desire: AI Sex Toys in The Art World’ at Officemagazine | Online

December | Feature of Objects of Desire at FORM design magazine | Print

September | Article: ‘Rare Kronkels - Het nieuwe design kent geen grenzen’ at Weekend | Print

September | Article: ‘Expanded Design between Design Activism and Collectible Design’ at Science Publications - Journal of Art and Design | Online

February | Article: ‘Insight: Objects of Desire, new hybrid forms that blend human and technology and the twilight area that exists in-between’ at CLOT magazine | Online

2021
December | Interview: ‘Meet speculative artist Pleun van Dijk’ at Horst und Edeltraut | Online

November | Interview: ’Pleun van Dijk’s form philosophy’ at DDW Magazine | Online

November | Feature of ‘Objects of Desire’ at PAGE magazine | Print

November | Article: ‘Op het BEFtival staat vrouwelijk genot voorop’ at NRC | Online + Print

October | Article: ‘The Material Futures of Central Saint Martins - Design for a better tomorrow’ at Next Nature | Online

September | Article: ‘Success Stories’ at Fashionclash | Online

September | Interview: ‘Next Generation: Shaping intimacy through objects with Pleun van Dijk’ at Next Nature | Online

August | Feature of ‘Objects of Desire’ at Fashion crossover - London | Online

August | Article: Objects of Desire by Pleun van Dijk at Trendland | Online

June | Feature of ‘Objects of Desire’ at Carnaleroom | Print

May | Feature of ‘Reborn’ at U+Zine 6 “Health” by Plurality University | Online + Print

May | Article: Transhumanism at Slanted Magazine #37—AI | Print

2020
October - December | Article: Body Beautiful & Happiness at DAMN magazine | Print

December | Article: ‘Notes On - Objects of Desire: WIP’ at Incl. magazine Issue #2 ‘Identity’ | Online

October | Interview: ‘form philosopher’ in Blank Space Magazine | Print

September | Article: ‘I [object] + You [human] = We’ in collaboration with Michele Degen at Incl. magazine Issue #1 ‘Open-source Accessibility | Online

April 2020 | Article: ‘The Body Garden’ in collaboration with Fred-Erik | on CLOT magazine | online

April | Essay: ‘Human livestock’ in collaboration with Fred-Erik | Published by Visions-by | Print

March | Article ‘Is there food on Mars? A hypothesis of circular nutrition’ at Domusweb | Online

February | Article about the Stockholm designweek at Vogue Ukraine | Online

February | Exhibition catalogue on the occasion of the ‘The age of’ by non: agency | print

February | Article: ‘Morph Collective is a multifaceted design studio raised on collaboration’ at It’s nice that | Online

2019
October | Book: ‘Do It Ourselves’ by Jeroen Junte | Print

April | Article: ‘Dissolving Views by Morph’ at Novembremagazine | Online

April | Interview: ‘Artist Spotlight: Dutch Visual Artist Pleun van Dijk on Creating Art at Roskilde Festival’ at Scandinavia Standard | Online

February | Article: ‘Hoe levend kunst kan zijn - biokunst en de toekomst’ at Metropolis M | Online

January | Photo: De Grote Nederlandse Kunstkalender | Print

2018
October | Article: ‘Replika - Staging a human production-line’ at Kaltblut | Online

July | Article: ‘Fremtidens krop og aktivisme’ at kunsten.nu | Online

June | Podcast: ‘Episode 004 - Live from Roskilde 2018’ at Contemporary Culture: Copenhagen Podcast | Online

2017
December | Article: ‘Beyond the Binary’ at Anticipate | Online

December | Interview: ‘Waar begint mijn lichaam als mens, individu, en waar houdt het op?’ at eye exposed | Online

June | Photos: ‘Fashion makes sense’ magazine at Fashionclash Festival | Print

June | Publication: ‘Hat mode sinn? | Print

June | Publication: ‘Wanneer is iets kunst en wanneer mode? | Print

June | Q&A: ‘Fashionclash festival 2017’ | Online

April | Video: ‘Milan Design Week 2017 - Pleun van Dijk - Reborn’ | Online

March | Publication: ‘Reborn by Pleun van Dijk’ at Ignant | Online

January | Article: ‘Nageslacht zonder seks’ at Mindshakes | Online

2016
November | Publication: ‘Design Academy Eindhoven 2016 Graduation show, Curated by Formafantasma’ at Yellowtrace | Online

October | Publication: ‘For Play is a sex design exhibition without any dildos’ at Dezeen | Online

October | Catalogue: ‘In need of’ by DAE | Print

October | Audio tour: ‘Charlie yogurt’s associative audio tour’ by Jason Page | Online

May | Publication: ‘MMC Congres’ by MMC | Print

CURATING

2023
21 - 29 October | ‘Future Materials’ with Innovatielabs at Klokgebouw - Dutch Design Week | Eindhoven, NL

7 - 10 September | ‘Future Materials’ at Ars Electronica - nominee S+T+ARTS Prize | Linz, AT