Meet the Board members behind TAATO.
Their role is to advise, and make sure all activities of the Foundation are in line with our objective, mission and scope. They give us critical feedback to help us reach our targets, sharing their own experience and expertise with the team.
Sanne Vaassen / Member of the Board (Director)
Within her artistic practice, Sanne Vaassen (Heerlen, 1991) investigates the fluid transition of matter and phenomena such as the cycle of water, the transformation of trees during the seasons and the evolution of language. Central themes within her diverse works are therefore time and processes of change. In doing so, Vaassen’s work shares an interface with other disciplines such as ecology, geography, history and anthropology. Her work has previously been shown in several group and solo exhibitions at home and abroad, including at the Bonnefantenmuseum (Maastricht), SALTS (Basel), Unit 1 Gallery (London), and 601Artspace (New York). She was also a resident at the Jan Van Eyck Academy in 2014-2015.
Giuditta Vendrame / Member of the Board (Secretary)
Giuditta Vendrame is an artist based in Rotterdam. In her work, she inhabits different media to explore interconnected themes of space, mobility and personhood. Through a research-based, multidisciplinary and collaborative practice, she questions social–political structures that are often left unchallenged. She addresses both physical and non-physical systems that govern shared spaces and movement across different spatial scales. Her work is concerned with these structures through natural elements and forces that she sees as connectors. For several years, Vendrame has been looking at interconnected bodies of water to challenge modern conceptions of nationhood, territory, and borderlands. Her work has been exhibited and presented at the Venice Architecture Biennale, Walker Art Center, Philadelphia Museum of Art, Van Abbemuseum Eindhoven, RMIT Gallery Melbourne, OCAT Shenzhen and others.
Roy Voragen / Member of the Board (Penny Meister)
Roy Voragen is a writer, curator and Southeast Asia specialist, based in Maastricht, the Netherlands (linktr.ee/royvoragen). Between 1996 and 2003, he studied philosophy and political science at the University of Amsterdam (BA, MA, BA, MA); and he lived and worked in Southeast Asia from 2003 to 2019, where he worked as a university lecturer, writer and curator. He has curated exhibitions in Bandung, Yogyakarta, Jakarta, Manila, Singapore, Hong Kong, Yokohama, Kuala Lumpur, Maastricht, Cologne, Heerlen, Diepenheim, Tilburg, Aachen and Athens. His practice delves into the multitudes of relationships between porous bodies, stuttering languages and opaque spaces.
Simon de Leeuw / Member of the Board
Simon de Leeuw is a programme maker for DutchCulture, a platform for cultural collaborations in Amsterdam. There he works at the intersection of culture and diplomacy. A large part of Simon’s work is aimed at connecting, creating and highlighting concrete opportunities for cultural exchange for emerging artists alongside his colleagues in the New Generations team. Simon also represents the organisation in the EUNIC Global network, as well as serving on the board of the local EUNIC cluster in the Netherlands. His objective is to increase understanding through meaningful cultural exchanges and collaborations, often in shared European cultural spaces, and in response to societal challenges.
“It is meaningful to me to come back to Euroculture speaking to my past self and showing that a job in the cultural sector is legitimate, important and enriching.” (Simon de Leeuw, Member of the Board)
