Okki Poortvliet
Design BA: Animation & Illustration + Time Based Design
Minerva Art Academy- Hanze
Graduates: 2021
Specialisms: Film / Printmaking / Drawing
My location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Okki Poortvliet
First Name: Okki
Last Name: Poortvliet
University / College: Minerva Art Academy- Hanze
Course / Program: Design BA: Animation & Illustration + Time Based Design
Graduates: 2021
Specialisms: Film / Printmaking / Drawing
My Location: Amsterdam, Netherlands
Website: Click To See Website
About
Okki Poortvliet (1999) is a documentary filmmaker, artist, and designer. She grew up in Odoorn, a small village in the north of the Netherlands, and studied Design at Minerva Art Academy and Philosophy at the University of Groningen. She developed a distinctive film style in which story and imagery go hand in hand. Okki’s films are anthropological, experimental, and and place a strong emphasis on visual composition. In addition to being screened in cinemas, her work is often presented as part of installations and exhibitions.Okki is fascinated by people, their surroundings, and their worldviews. This fascination comes to life in films such as IJswee, about Manus who sharpens ice skates; World's Greatest Missile Builder, featuring Jippe who aims to outdo Kim Jong-un; The Flaghoisters, in which Ricardo nails his regional flag to a windmill; and Over the Cattlegrid, following Robert who cycles through the forest every morning at 5:30.Alongside her film and installation work, Okki creates drawings, posters, and texts. Starting in September 2025, she will spend two years as a research fellow at the Master of Film program at the Netherlands Film Academy in Amsterdam.
Cows, fruit flies, horses, cats, sheep, herring, badgers, moths, moles, slugs, deers, hare From the village to the city, humans are surrounded by all kinds of animals. These animals, small and large, are dependent on our actions; we decide where they live, how they live, whether they live at all. We each have experienced the death of an animal—swatting an annoying fly, poisoning a lettuce-eating snail, or putting down beloved pet. Conversely, far fewer people have witnessed the butchering of a chicken, pig, or cow. Dierendoders is an audiovisual investigation into our varied responses to the many forms of animal killing that happen daily. How do hunters Geert and Loes, Wally who does animal testing research, Edith who killed mice for her owl and Valentijn who killed roosters in his backyard experience death? By giving a platform to those who regularly end animals' lives – professionally or as a hobby – Okki Poortvliet highlights the complexities of animal death and our relationship to it. Through her multimedial works, she explores how art can portray the many facets of animal death: the painful, the beautiful, and the hidden. By making all forms (of animal death) equally tangible, the works unravel how the visibility of some deaths and the invisibility of others impact our connection to the many animals around us. Why do we grieve the death of a dog but tolerate the killing of a fish? Where do we draw the line between pets and livestock, between grotesque and tolerable death? Dierendoders invites us to rethink our own relationship to animal death, looking at the often unseen and repeatedly disregarded.