Axelle is a social anthropologist and illustrator, currently working as engagement and communications officer for Finance Watch and running the European Association of Social Anthropology (EASA)'s Art and Anthropology club as part of the Applied Anthropology Network. She was previously a freelance researcher and curator in the Netherlands and Belgium and has worked with the European Commission’s Joint Research Center, the Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25), the European Green Party (EGP), and various art organisations on political campaigns and citizen engagement projects concerning digital technologies and society. She has co-curated the HELLO WORLD! Exhibition (2018) and the MY BODY MY CHOICE Exhibition (2022), and her work has been featured in several exhibitions. She received her BA in Cultural Studies & Social Anthropology at the University of Kent, as well as an MA in Arts & Society at Utrecht University. She has won the University of Kent’s Public Engagement Prize in 2017 for her ethnographic film ‘In One Vital Motion’, and was the editor-in-chief of an award-winning magazine in the UK.
Projects
- MY BODY MY CHOICE ExhibitionResearcher, co-curator and producer of the MY BODY MY CHOICE Exhibition (2-4 December) in Copenhagen, for the European Greens and the Greens/EFA group in the European Parliament. MY BODY MY CHOICE explores attacks on bodily autonomy and the right to choose amid today's rise of far-right forces, the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on women and households, and the war in Ukraine.
- Publication of 'The Cabinet of Curiosities: Between Curatorial and Ethnographic Practice'Abstract: As researcher and co-curator of Creative Coding Utrecht’s HELLO WORLD! exhibition, I produced the ‘Cabinet of Curiosities’, a multimodal space in the exhibition through which audience members explored the tools and practices of creative coding. Creative coding is an interdisciplinary practice whose works treat digital technologies as material for creative practice. The community that has established itself in the Netherlands is composed of a range of creatives: they are artists, desig
- Artist Talk: Constant Dullaart in conversation with Axelle Van Wynsberghe at LIMA, AmsterdamAt LIMA, I helped with the theoretical framing of the artist talk with Dutch artist Constant Dullaart, and also interviewed him onstage to talk about the artworks and performances he has created witht the use of digital technologies. Constant’s artwork not only sheds light on the role of digital technologies in society, but also how they have shifted our visual language, and the ways in which we relate to each other, and even how we constitute our identities—what identities have come to repres
Work history
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Engagement and Communications OfficerFinance Watch
Brussels, BelgiumPart Time
Finance Watch is an advocacy NGO whose mission is to create a better financial system that serves society. I develop and implement an engagement roadmap designed to create tangible impact towards an audience of non-experts in finance, including concerned citizens by leveraging social media, email, newsletters and other relevant digital channels.
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Web EditorDemocracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25)
Brussels, BelgiumPart Time
The Democracy in Europe Movement 2025 (DiEM25) is a pan-European, cross-border movement of democrats. I edit and publish articles in various languages on DiEM25’s website in coordination with the communication and translation teams, as well as develop DiEM25's content and editorial strategy. I am establishing a permanent and growing database of contributors from the DiEM25 Coordinating Collective (CC), Advisory Panel (AP), National Collectives (NCs), Spontaneous Collectives (DSCs), campaigns (especially the Green New Deal for Europe (GNDE campaign) and pillars (Progressive Agenda for Europe).
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Skills
- Academic Research
- Arts Culture
- Cultural Anthropology
- Design Ethnography
- Illustration
- Art Curation
- Communications Strategy
- Social Media
Education
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MA Arts & SocietyUtrecht University
Utrecht, Netherlands
This interdisciplinary masters programme includes cultural studies and media theory, aesthetics and art history, anthropology and sociology, and is meant to prepare students to be "a leading figure in the global arts, media, and cultural sectors of the future".
My MA thesis focuses on the mythos of the born-digital art field, and how these myths are used by artists as a creative platform through which to comment on our post-digital condition.
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1st Class BA Social Anthropology & Cultural StudiesUniversity of Kent
- Canterbury, United Kingdom
Throughout my studies in Social Anthropology and Cultural Studies, I have grown deeply interested in the impact of digital technology and media practices in contemporary sociality, politics, and art. As part of my Anthropology courses, I have developed a strong theoretical background in power and economy, violence and conflict, development, and ethnographic research and writing. My background in Cultural Studies complements this understanding through a thorough cultural analysis of how media is altering our contemporary sociality, identities, and notions of space and time.
I have in-depth research experience on digital culture and issues of internet governance, such as citizenship, privacy, the surveillance industry. To give a few examples, I have conducted a case study on big data in relation to citizen autonomy, and have also researched new media arts collectives composed of internet activists for my undergraduate thesis, ‘The Malign Torsion of the Hyperreal: Simulation & Subversion in Cyberspace | Free Art & Technology Lab: A Case Study’.
Awards
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Best Performance in Cultural Studies PrizeUniversity of Kent
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Sociology and Social Policy Faculty PrizeUniversity of Kent
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