OLIVIER M. HERTER
Olivier M. Herter (1995) works as a writer, performer and interdisciplinary artist.
His work has been presented internationally at venues such as the Venice Biennale, Muziekgebouw Amsterdam, South by Southwest, Eye Filmmuseum and the Dutch National Opera.
In 2020, he graduated from the Institute of Performative Arts in Maastricht, The Netherlands. That same year, he was artist-in-residence with composer Boris de Klerk at the renowned club De School in Amsterdam. In 2023, his collaboration with Studio Nergens on Songs for a Passerby—a poetic VR experience—was awarded the Venice Immersive Grand Prize at the 80th Venice Film Festival.
As a writer, Herter develops a non-narrative text repertoire. Rather than telling stories, his texts create immersive, mental architectures—rhythmic and associative compositions where speakers search for footing in a shifting world. His work often hovers between performance, poetry and sonic experience, inviting the audience into moments of resonance, immersion and reflection beyond linear narrative.
For Dutch publications: www.firmagott.com
INDEX
11 DAT HET WAS [AND SO IT HAPPENED]
Dat het was (translated as And so it happened) is an intimate monologue navigating dissociation, memory, and the aftermath of sexual violence. With great care and precision, the text constructs a fragmented inner space — a psychological architecture of language and silence. Rather than dramatizing trauma, the work offers a poetic encounter with its residue, tracing what remains unspoken.
The performance was developed in collaboration with actor Luca Bryssinck of theatre collective ‘t Barre Land and composer Boris de Klerk, who performs a live soundscape that intensifies the work’s sonic and emotional texture. Together with sound engineer Camiel Muiser, the team also created a contemporary audio version of the text. Text and audio story will be published on literary platform Hard//Hoofd.
Read more
[performance, text and audio piece]
‘t Barre Land
Hard//Hoofd
FIRMA GOTT
08 SONGS FOR A PASSERBY
Awarded the Venice Immersive Grand Prize at the 80 Venice International Film Festival!
Songs for a Passerby is a virtual reality opera about our tenuous relationship with the transitory nature of reality. How does one relate to a world of things that are passing? Are we a part of it? Or are we just looking at it? And what about the body – is it something that we are or that we have?
Read more [vr opera]
Studio Nergens
Silbersee
Muziekgebouw
VIA ZUID
04 NOWHERE
Nowhere is a research project, developed in the context of Muzieklab of Intro in Situ and VIA ZUID and Chronosphere lab of De Effenaar Smart Vennue.
Director Celine Daemen, together with writer Olivier Herter, Composer Sterre Konijn and art director Aron Fels, explored the physicality of virtual space and the role of music in creating immersive experiences.
Read more[vr opera, research]
VIA ZUID
Intro in Situ
Effenaar
03 THANK YOU
Performance piece made a artist-in-residence at club and cultural vennue De School in Amsterdam.
THANK YOU is a presentation by Bors de Klerk & Olivier Herter on their research on ‘measurable time’ versus ’emotionally-experienced time’. In other words: clock time versus momentum. The research will be conducted in isolation, residing in our beloved s105 from 13 January until 13 February. Boris and Olivier will create the performance by use of a time-bound medium, within a time-bound process. They’ll pre-determine and schedule their entire work process hour by hour. A rigidity that’s slowly becoming the norm in arts. The duo wants to find out what forms of freedom and what kind of momentum can arise within a process as rigid as this.
Read more[performance]
Subbacultcha
De School Amsterdam
01 OPERA OF THE FALLING
The Opera of the Falling is a musical and visual exploration on the loneliness of sorrow.
The piece is a virtual reality opera, inspired by interviews with people with a psychological vulnerability. With psychiatry as a mirror to the world we live in, the experience calls for reflection and universal recognition.
Read more[vr opera]
VIA ZUID
Cultura Nova
MCEM