Margherita Soldati is an Amsterdam-based artist, researcher and co-founder of Absurd Beings and Burning Steps, working across performance, installation, and writing. Her practice operates at the intersection of ecology, immunology, and political infrastructures of care. She approaches the body not as subject matter but as a research apparatus and a site where environmental, agricultural, and medical systems become legible through contact.
Her work explores how regimes of optimisation, sterility, and control shape organic life and human subjectivity. Working across greenhouses, laboratories, and exhibition spaces, she develops embodied methodologies that test proximity, exposure, and incompatibility. Drawing on scientific collaboration and critical theory, she engages material processes such as cultivation, extraction, and contamination, treating plant, soil, blood, and other matter as active participants in relational ecologies. Rather than resolving tensions, her practice sustains those between care and control, intimacy and antagonism, survival and system.
She graduated from Gerrit Rietveld Academie in 2018, and she is currenly finishing a MA in artistic research at KABK. Margherita has taught and mentored at Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Textile Museum Tilburg, Ateliers ’89 (Aruba), ArtEZ Zwolle, and within European initiatives with Waag Futurelab. Her work has been supported by Mondriaan Fonds, Stimuleringsfonds, and Amsterdam Fonds voor de Kunst, including the Talent Development Grant and 3Package Deal (2022), and has been presented internationally across Europe, the USA, Russia, and the Caribbean.
Exhibitions
2025
Microbial Commons, for Hortus ex Machina at Tomato World (NL)
I hate the plan, the plant hates me, I want to become it, at DRILL exhibition at Paradise, West, Den Haag, curated by Kris Dittel
Politics of Perceiving, curated by PPP Sunflower Soup at W139, Amsterdam
10 Kg of Strawberries, performance & dining experience at Villa Medici, Roma
Itch, performance at Index of Error exhibition at Paradise, West, Den Haag
Agenda Mania, with Burning Steps, at de Bouwput, Amsterdam
2024
Good Gut!, at Deveron Projects art residency, Huntly Scotland
Evolving Sensitivities, at Waag Futurelab for Werkconferentie: Kunst x Wetenschap x Samenleving
Evolving Sensitivities, video work for the RietvledTV, De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam
2023
Alchemy of Resilience at Portiersloge, Dutch Design Week, Eindhoven
Evolving Sensitivities at Felix Meritis, Amsterdam (AFK) curated by Bogomir Doringer
MushMap at Ars Electronica / More than Planet, Linz
Burnout* Manifestations at EM Studio Gallery, Amsterdam
Burnout* Manifestations at W139, Amsterdam
Evolving Sensitivities at Waag for Glue, Amsterdam
Strands of Resilience at Bureau Postjesweg, Amsterdam
Looking Fingers at Kunsthalle Lottozero, Prato
2022
The Body Keeps the Score at KunstenLab, Deventer
Repairing Memories at Ateliers ‘ 89 Punto di Beyas Arte, Aruba
2021
Invisible Traces for You Keep Me under no Smell at Venice Art Projects with Curatela Placebo, Venice
Invisible Traces (publication format) at Rea Arte Fair with Curatela Placebo, Milan
Returning in collaboration with Cooloo for Masterly – the Dutch in Milan at Palazzo Francesco Turati during Salone del Mobile, Milan
In the Maak / Bijenkorf & Room on the Roof representing TextileLab Amsterdam at several location in the Nederland
2020
Fantastic Plastic at New Tretyakov Gallery of Moscow Design Museum
Skin Hunger Neo Futurist Breakfast at Mediamatic, Amsterdam
2019
Growing Surface for Dead Darling #12 in collaboration with Current Obsession, Amsterdam
Uncomfortable (sample) at Fisher Fine Arts Library Material Collection University of Pennsylvania
The Beauty Dinner Neo Futurist Dinner at Mediamatic, Amsterdam
ENDLESS LIFE at Doornburgh, Maarssen
Parksessies Kunst at Haarlemmerhout, Haarlem
Feeling MySelf at Bankitò organized by Buro Imaginaire, Hungary
Rethinking Plastic at Yksi Expo organized by Searious Business and Dutch Design Foundation, Eindhoven
VERS Kunstweekend at BergardeGaleries, Heerjansdam
Absurd Beings on Skin at KunstKapel, Amsterdam
‘What a Waste’ at Ateliers’ 89 in Oranjestad, Aruba
‘Naakt of Bloot’ at Museum Jan Cunen, Oss
Object Rotterdam at Art Rotterdam, Rotterdam
2018
Museum Nacht Amsterdam Blind at Mediamatic, Amsterdam
Het Parfum at Mediamatic Gallery with Scents Apparatus, Amsterdam
Graduation Show Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
ButzeBad at Schau Fenster Gallery, Berlin
2017
Fashion Clash, Textile Lab of Waag Society, Maastricht
UnCut “What is happening to our Brain?” at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam
Absurd Being Independent Exhibition at CC ‘t Fijnhout, Amsterdam
2016
Odorama at Mediamatic Gallery, Amsterdam
What Design Can Do 2016 with the Public Prosecution Office, Amsterdam
Forces for Architecture at Benthem Crouwel Architects/Jólan van der Wiel
2015
NPSA International Neuropsychoanalysis Congress 2015, Amsterdam
LockBox of Bookstore Foundation, Amsterdam
2014
NPSA Internationa Neuropsychoanalysis Congress 2014, New York
2013
SUN.LAB 2013 at Fiera Rimini, Rimini
Commissions
2024
Evolving Sensitivities, video work for RietveldTV in collaboration with Beeld en Geluid
2019
Death Beauty Salon at Mediamatic for Museum Night, Amsterdam
ENDLESS LIFE at Doornburgh, Maarssen
Workshops & Lectures
2026
Speaker at Life After Rietveld and Sandberg: On Funding Bodies curated by Pedro Matias, Amsterdam
2025
Panel moderation International Clinic – European Collaborations with DutchCulture for Nieuwe Instituut, Rotterdam
Good Gut, for European Rural Parliament curated by Deveron Projects, Huntly Scotland
2024
We are many: rethinking resources and collaborations, Winter Lab ArtEZ curated by Loom, Zwolle
2023
Time-bound: Embracing Material Transience, Summer Lab ArtEZ curated by Loom, Zwolle
Material Experimentation, lecture at the HvA Bachelors, Amsterdam
2022
Repairing Memories, Ateliers ’89 Punto di Beyas Arte, Aruba
Re-use Textile waste (2), Masterclass at TextielMuseum, Tilburg
2021
What Makes a Collective, lecture Jewelry Department Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
Re-use Textile waste, Masterclass at TextielMuseum, Tilburg
Tangible Memories, online workshop hosted by Unbore Collective
2020
Sculpting Textile, workshop at Mediamatic, Amsterdam
2019
Plastic Waste workshop at Makersbase Nieuwe Veste, Breda
Nederland Leest Maker Meetup on sustainability artist talk at Makersbase, Breda
Sculpting Textile, workshop at Mediamatic, Amsterdam
MuseumCamp 2019 at Muiderslot (Muiden) organized by Allard Pierson, Waag & NEMO
BarTalk#16 Sensory Ecologies, Den Haag
‘What did you touch today?’ at Mediamatic, Amsterdam
PILLS with Davide Tomatis at Instituto d’Arte Applicata e Design, Turin
Fabric Manipulation Workshop at DIY Textile School, Amsterdam
‘What a Waste’ Workshop at Ateliers’ 89, Oranjestad Aruba
2018
Fabric Manipulation workshop at DIY Textile School, Amsterdam
2017
(Ir)Relevant Matter Bio talk at Mediamatic Gallery, Amsterdam
2016
Odorama Talk at Mediamatic Gallery, Amsterdam
Hacking Source at Source Self Made Design, Florence
Awards/Nomination/Funds
2025
Project grant from Amsterdam Funds voor de Kunst
Experiment grant from Stimulerings Fonds
2024
Artist in Residency Grant at Deveron Projects from Mondriaan Fonds
2023
3Package Deal Art Bio Design coalition from Amsterdam Funds voor de Kunst
2022
Building Talent program from Stimulerings Fonds
Talent Development from Stimulerings Fonds
Art Residency
2024 EatThis, Westland, Netherland
2024 Deveron Projects, Huntly Scotland
2023 Lottozero, Prato Italy
2022 Ateliers’ 89 Punto di Beyas Arte, Oranjestad Aruba
2019 Ateliers’ 89 Art Residency, Oranjestad Aruba
Education
2024-2026 Master Artistic Research, KABK, Royal Academy Den Haag
2015-2018 Gerrit Rietveld Academy, Bachelor of Art and Design, Amsterdam
2011-2014 IAAD, Bachelor of Science in Industrial Design, Turin
Sideline Activities
04.2022 – present
Art Mentor/Researcher at Waag Futurelab
04.2020 – 01.2023
Advisory Board member at Unbore – arts, life sciences and technology
01.2020 – 03.2022
Mentor at Fabricademy and concept developer at Textile Lab Amsterdam
02.2017 – present
Co-founder at art curatorial collective Absurd Beings Collective
09.2020 – 01.2021
Guest teacher at DesignLab Gerrit Rietveld Academie, Amsterdam
09.2018 – 04.2021
Art Teacher DIY Textile School, Amsterdam
03.2017 – 08.2018
Co-founder and curator of Cultureel Centrum ‘t Fijnhout, Amsterdam
09.2014 – 06.2015
Assistant Officina Corpuscoli/Maurizio Montalti
Margherita Soldati 