Artist Statement rene Castelijn
I am Rene Castelijn, a dutch photographic artist. Although the autonomous projects shown here seem very distinct. They are experiments that always connect through me. I use photography as a way to slow down looking and to think through images rather than explain them. My work often exists between the physical and the symbolic, where meaning is the driving force of the work but still remains unstable and unresolved.
By constructing situations instead of documenting reality, I explore themes of absence, vulnerability, and control. The images are deliberate but incomplete, allowing space for doubt, irony, playfulness and above all reflection. Rather than offering answers, the work invites attention — to time, material, and the experience of looking.
Artist statement Cromagnon
Cromagnon is a collaborative project by myself and Raymond de Vries. The work operates as a photographic investigation into the state of being of Western man. Cromagnon insists on creating images that return to the most basic conditions of being human—hence the reference to the Cromagnon. The method consists solely of exercises. Subjects are approached through eccentric movement, without the intention—or the possibility—of reaching a centre, conclusion, or final image.
2024/2025 GRAW atelierexpo
2024 work in de aanschouw
2024 publicatie in de Groter Rotterdamse Kunstkalender
2022 GRAW ateilierexpo
2021 GRAW Nature collaboration with Violina Jeliazkova.
2021 Pakje kunst (www.pakjekunst.nl)
2020 GRAW - Atelier Exhibition and Videoinstallatie
2017 Yakushima Mon Amour - collaboration with Violina Jeliazkova - Kunstkamer PlanT Antwerpen
2016 Cromagnon series programmed exhibition on the Mediawall of the Rotterdamse Schouwburg
2014 From 2009 I work on an ungoing series of redefined aquaria
2014 Screening of the Mirror Hall pictures/AS-Film Studio’s- Noordereiland Rotterdam
2013 Cromagnon_Printed Magazine. Sold as an Art Magazine in the Wormshop/Rotterdam
2013 Group Exhibition Cromagnon/Ne Studios Noordereiland Rotterdam
2013 King for a day/ Subject: change of rule from Beatrix to Willem
Alexander/Assignment Deelgemeente Feyenoord/Tante Nino Noordereiland Rotterdam
2012 Group expo NE Studios Fototentoonstelling/Binnenschippers
2011 KUKARO Kunstkamers Rotterdam/ Redefining the Aquarium
2010 Group Expo NE Studios/What vision is left and is anyone asking?
2009 Sein Zum Tode, Photo Document on a Dance Mirror Hall in Rijckevorsel, Belgium
2008 Solo Exhibition – Collected Photoworks from 3 series, Maaskade Galerie, Rotterdam
2008 Nostalgia – Photo Exhibition Bulgaria/Wereldwaag, Dordrecht
2007 Solo Exhibition about fear at the Dutch Punch festval, Dom Kino St Petersburg Russia
2009 Mein Angst- Enscenated photography that focuses on the Phenomenon of Fear
2007 Motorship Stubnitz/Documentary Photography about a former fishership from the
DDR, that travels through Europe as a mobile platform for cultural productions
2006 Nostalgia And Snowed Up Heroes. Since the beginning of this millenium I go to
Bulgaria. to capture the transistion from the traditional to the modern world
2005 Snowed Up Heroes, photobook own distribution, Sofia Bulgaria