Renée Goethijn (°1987, BE, she/​her) stu­died the creator’s pro­gram at the Ritcs School of Arts in Brussels, whe­re she explo­red the boun­da­ries bet­ween the­a­ter and visu­al arts. She fol­lows her int­ui­ti­on to cre­a­te visu­al, absurd per­for­man­ces in which sce­no­grap­hy often forms the core of the pro­duc­ti­on. In doing so, she cre­a­tes bizar­re paral­lel rea­li­ties that scru­ti­ni­ze the prin­ci­ples and mecha­nis­ms sha­ping our soci­al reality.

Since gra­du­a­ting, Renée’s artis­tic work has con­sisted of a con­ti­nuous inter­play bet­ween an indi­vi­du­al tra­jec­to­ry, col­lec­ti­ve prac­ti­ces, and other collaborations.
Together with seve­r­al for­mer Ritcs stu­dents, she foun­ded K.A.K. in 2014 — a hori­zon­tal col­lec­ti­ve of 16 the­a­ter makers, tin­ke­rers, thin­kers, and other trick­sters, searching for alter­na­ti­ve forms of cre­a­ti­on, pre­sen­ta­ti­on, and col­lec­ti­vi­ty. K.A.K. has pro­du­ced per­for­man­ces, one-time the­a­tri­cal events, ses­si­ons, and encoun­ters. In recent years, Renée has wor­ked on Office de Tourisme/​Agence de Voyage (2016), Life, Death and Television (2018), Snøw (2019), and The Unheard (2020), among others.

During her stu­dies, her short solo works were pro­gram­med at various fes­ti­vals: Dark Tourism (2011) was per­for­med at the Cultuurmarkt in Antwerp, and Kier (2012) was pre­sen­ted at Kipfestival in Ghent. Her trip­tych To get pro­per­ly con­fu­sed you have to put your head underwater/Ufo’s/Two things to do and two more things to do was selec­ted for TAZ Jong Werk (2013).

After gra­du­a­ting, she was given a one-year resi­d­en­cy at KcnOna within a young cre­a­tors’ pro­gram. There, she col­la­bo­ra­ted on Katja Dreyer’s Kroniek (2013) and con­clu­ded with her own cre­a­ti­on, Reconstruction of the day I left (2014).

In 2013, she was a guest per­for­mer and cre­a­tor at Bookers&Hookers. For Kunstenwerkplaats and Monty, she co-direc­ted No Use For Binoculars (2015) and Totally (2017) with Dries Gijsels. She also direc­ted the youth pro­duc­ti­ons KERET! at Bronks (2018) and The secrets of the uni­ver­se are hid­den under a pile of pige­on poop at Larf! (2019).

During the 2021 – 2022 sea­son, her pro­duc­ti­on MANNAHATTA pre­mie­red (2022), and she cre­a­ted the par­ti­ci­pa­to­ry per­for­man­ce Soep Opera in col­la­bo­ra­ti­on with Katinka de Jonge (2022) as part of Openbare Werken in Viernulvier.

Additionally, she fre­quent­ly works as a (lead) direc­tor for various com­pa­nies and the­a­ters. With Compagnie Barbarie and Theater Stap, she cre­a­ted Mise en Place at HetPaleis, Bronks, and Kopergietery (2021). She direc­ted and co-wro­te Wezen by Maxime Waladi at Fabuleus and Action Zoo Humain (2023) and con­tri­bu­ted to Jackie by Lien Wildemeersch at Theater Malpertuis (2023).

She also ser­ved as final direc­tor for Studio Sheherazade by Haider Altimimi and Gorges Ocloo (2018), What The God by Anouk Friedli and Guus Diepenmaat (2021), Voorjaarsontwaken by Wolf Wolf (2022), Spindle by Oona Libens (2022), De Puberfluisteraar and Jeanne by Sanderijn Helsen & De Studio (2023−2025), Piéton by Kenneth Berth/​Het nieuw­ste­de­lijk & De Spil (2024), Residu by Menzo Kircz and Eleonore Van Godtsenhoven (2024), and Oh Deer by Gina Beuk & Bronks (2024).

Renée is also acti­ve within Kloppend Hert, whe­re she is one of the core men­tors of the artis­tic plat­form Jong Gewei. Additionally, she works as a lec­tu­rer and head of depart­ment in the dra­ma pro­gram at RITCS.