About
Oana Clitan’s multidisciplinary work investigates topics related to technology, media and communication.
Using worldbuilding and experimental narratives, she builds fantastical scenarios which explore how technology materializes as part of power structures and how it influences both public and private spaces.
She often repurpose and remixes existing content, whether it's contemporary imagery sourced from the internet or archival materials, weaving a web of pop-culture references. Her work blends and contrasts different mediums in order to highlight the stark contrasts of how we engage with the digital world. Her projects range from multi-screen installations to textiles, digital drawings and AI-generated videos.
Born in Romania, she is currently based in Rotterdam, NL.
CV
2019 - "...All else is poor translation" (White Cuib, Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
2017 - Goodbye Expectations (Visual Kontakt gallery, Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
2017 - Kitsch Speech (Stroop Rotterdam, Rotterdam, NL)
- 2024
Limburg Biennale (Marres, Maastricht, NL)
Object Rotterdam (HAKA gebouw Rotterdam, NL)
- 2022
Was uns betrifft // Wat ons betreft (Gallery Ursula Walter & Gallery Raskolnikow, Dresden, DE)
2021
Was uns betrifft // Wat ons betreft (Het Archief, Rotterdam, NL)
Deep Truth (Rijksmuseum Twenthe / GOGBOT, Enschede, NL)
Test_Lab: Summer Sessions 2021 / Kunstavond XL (V2, Rotterdam, NL)
Mind Over Matter (Technische Sammlungen, Dresden, DE)
2020
The New Curent (Spaanse Kubus, Rotterdam, NL)
MOONMOON (Space 101, Rotterdam, The Netherlands)
2019
Open Archief (Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL)
Open Archief - Dutch Design Week (Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, NL)
LEX4.1 (duo with Nicole Sciarone, Galerie Lecq, Rotterdam, NL)
Apa Kabar? What's New? (MAMA, Rotterdam, NL)
2018
Hubbub le Scope Palermo (Borderline Palermo, Palermo, Italy)
Permeable Boundaries (Plexus Projects, Brooklyn, New York, USA)
Elektro Arts Festival (Gallery Casa Matei, Cluj-Napoca, Romania)
Testival / Time Weekend (Time Window, Rotterdam, NL)
2017
Hubbub le Scope (Wolfart Project Space, Rotterdam, NL)
Anthropomorphism of Media (Dynamo Artist Association, Vancouver BC, CA)
WALLPAPER project by MAMA and Art Baby Gallery (Showroom MAMA, Rotterdam, NL)
2016
Zine Club reading room / VABF Fundraiser (Remington Gallery, Vancouver, Canada)
2015
Paranormal activity - disambiguation (Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Canada)
Gif Arts Festival Los Angeles (Coaxial, Los Angeles, USA)
Wereld van het Witte de With Kwartier Festival (Witte de Withstraat, Rotterdam, NL)
2014
Vancouver Art / Book Fair by Project Space (Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver BC, Canada)
2013
Revealing the Network (Electron, Breda, The Netherlands)
2021 - Summer Sessions at V2_ Lab for Unstable Media, Rotterdam, NL
2020 - C. Rockefeller Center for the Contemporary Arts, Dresden, Germany
2018 - Vermont Studio Center, Johnson, Vermont, USA
2017 - Visual Kontakt gallery (HAUS residency), Cluj-Napoca, Romania
supported projects
Cultuurfonds (project grant for Zephyr Chants sound installation)
Stimuleringsfonds Digital Culture Startsubsidie (project grant for Zephyr Chants sound installation)
2023
CBK O&O - Research & Development (project grant for 'Birth of OPPER')
Stimuleringsfonds Open Residency grant ('Dear April / Birth of OPPER')
2021
Stimuleringsfonds Experiment Grant ('Pixels of lost time and space')
Gemeente Rotterdam (scenario grant for 'Electrons')
Makersloket, Stichting Droom & Daad (project grant for 'Electrons')
CBK O&O - Research & Development (project grant for 'All The Feels')
2020
Stimuleringsfonds Design Grant (project grant for 'All The Feels')
Amarte Fonds (project grant for 'All The Feels')
CBK PPR grant (project grant for 'All The Feels')
grant for residency from Goethe-Institut Niederlande and CBK Rotterdam
2019
Open Archief - project at Het Nieuwe Instituut and Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision (supported by Mondriaan Fonds)
2017, 2018
IBB travel grants from CBK Rotterdam
2017
Romanian Cultural Institute New York: support for projects abroad
Artist talk at PHĒNO (Thessaloniki, Greece)
2021
Netwerk Digitaal Erfgoed - Makers Programma: uit de praktijk van makers
2019
Thursday Night Live - Open Archief (Het Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam, NL)
Media Summer Night / Dutch Media Week (Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum, NL)
2018
GIFS - Media Summer Night (Netherlands Institute for Sound and Vision, Hilversum, NL)Artist talk at Garage Cafe #6 (Garage Rotterdam, NL)
2017
Digital Exquisite Corpse (Dynamo Arts Association, Vancouver, Canada)
Goodbye Expectations (Conversas Rotterdam, NL)
2015
lecture at AKV St Joost (Breda, The Netherlands)
Future news, official screens @ Rijksmuseum Twenthe
Open Archief 2019 Publication (in Dutch)
Shifting Language in Tubeligh magazine
AKV|St.Joost in Breda, the Netherlands (Master in Graphic Design)
BA
University of Art and Design from Cluj-Napoca, Romania (BA Graphic Arts)
Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Rennes, France (Visual Communication, Erasmus grant)
2018 - 2019 - initiator of Pulse by Oana Clitan
2016 - 2017 - Co-organizer at Conversas Rotterdam
2015 - Coordinator at Open Set - Dutch Design Summer School
2014 - one of the initiators and member of the Wecup collective.