Diane Mahín
Diane Mahín (b. 1993) is a Dutch-Iranian performance maker and sociologist. She makes performative worlds in which sound and image are the driving forces. Diane scrutinizes the human body as a material object in order to dissect social constructions, as she wishes to grasp their absurdity and humor. A single sound from the body can open up an entire world. She follows it, digs in, tears it up, and rebuilds it into theatrical codes shaped by the learned behaviors of an unbearable society.
Her work is raw, physical, and drenched in sound. It searches for what is hidden, what has not been said yet. She creates space for the ugliness and darkness of daily life without softening it, sometimes provoking laughter you did not see coming. What first feels strange, disturbing, or taboo often turns out to be deeply familiar. Something the audience thought they were alone in. That unexpected recognition is why she makes.
Alongside her individual practice, she makes performances with her brother Manuel Groothuysen under the name of FADAT.
FADAT is a performance collective consisting of Dutch-Iranian siblings Manuel Groothuysen and Diane Mahín. After having finished their theoretical studies in social sciences and humanities, the duo started to collaborate during their studies at the Institute of Performative Arts in Maastricht. They artistically connect through their shared existential and absurdist view on reality, and on the ways in which humans are subjected to the manipulation of (non-)human entities. These ideas can be overwhelming and confronting, but if one manages to zoom out, potentially liberating and painfully funny. Diane and Manuel shape these concepts into audiovisual performative realities informed by human behavior inside both fabricated and inevitable patterns.
EDUCATION
2024 Sandberg Institute MFA re:master opera
2024 Maastricht Institute of Performative Arts MA Theatre
2019 Goldsmiths, University of London MA Visual Sociology
2017 Utrecht School of the Arts Preparatory Course Fine Arts
2017 Utrecht University BSc Sociology
2017 Utrecht Universtiy BA Liberal Arts and Sciences
2016 University of Califonia Santa Barbara [USA] Exchange Program
PERFORMANCES AND INSTALLATIONS FOR GALLERY SPACEGRUNT (2024) [performer, director]
06.2025 FIBER Festival, Amsterdam
04.2025 Out of Sight, Antwerpen
04.2025 Plantage Dok, Amsterdam
10.2024 FLAM Live Art Festival, Arti et Amicitiae, Amsterdam
large space in the back of the mouth (2024) [director, composer]
05.2025 O. Festival, Rotterdam
11.2024 Beelden aan Zee Museum x The Grey Space in the Middle
GUT (2023) [director]
04.2025 STORMOPKOMST, Turnhout, BE
03.2025 STORMOPKOMST, Genk, BE
09.2024 Out of Sight, Antwerpen, BE
05.2024 FIBER Festival Context Programme [artist talk]
05.2024 XING, Bologna, IT
04.2024 Motel Mozaique, Theater Rotterdam
01.2024 Boring Festival, Haarlem
10.2023 KIKK Festival, Namur, BE
09.2023 Zaal 3, The Hague
04.2023 Trixie during Rewire x Proximity Music, The Hague
03.2023 Club Huis, Het Huis, Utrecht
01.2023 Come Together, Frascati, Amsterdam
For a Long Time Now (2022) by FADAT [performer, director]
11.2022 Performance Night, Z33, Hasselt, BE
09.2022 Likeminds Noord, Amsterdam Fringe Festival
03.2022 The Spectrum Space, Evidence in Motion, instrument inventors initiative
COME TO BED (2020) by FADAT [performer, director] - video installation
11.2023 Playground Festival, STUK, Leuven, BE
after the siren, before the bell [performer] - installation by Marissa Lee Benedict and David Rueter
08.2024 P/////AKT Amsterdam
Politics of the Armed Lifeboat [sound designer] - exhibition by Diana Al-Halabi and Hilda Moucharrafieh
12.2023 RADIUS, Delft
Postmortem Recordings (2019) [creation] - multimedia installation
11.2019 Intervention during 'De Laatste Aai', Museum Tot Zover, Amsterdam
11.2019 Museum Night, Museum Tot Zover, Amsterdam
05.2019 Things to Do When You're Dead, Cambridge city Crematorium, UK
04.2019 Residual Matters, Goldsmiths, University of London, UK
PERFORMANCES FOR BLACK BOX THEATRE
trying to get cozy in the dark dark void (2024) by FADAT [performer, director]
02.2025 Frascati, Amsterdam
10.2024 Zaal 3, Den Haag
10.2024 Arenberg, Antwerpen, BE
10.2024 Theater Kikker, Utrecht
09.2024 Likeminds Noord, Amsterdam Fringe Festival
a divine aversion to DYING (2022) co-created with Just van Bommel
12.2022 Frascati, Amsterdam
TEACHING / TALKS / ARTISTIC GUIDANCE
03.2025 [talk] Haagse Vrouwendebat, Nest Den Haag
05.2025 [teaching] workshop on instruction based scores, Master in Theatre, Maastricht Institute of Performative Arts
05.2025 [guidance] ArtEZ 3rd year Music Theatre, artistic guidance and final direction by FADAT for ‘Tussen Eb en Instorting’, performed at Karavaan Festival
05.2024 [talk] FIBER Festival - (De)Constructing Bodies
02.2023 [talk] HKU - Theater and Technology
02.2022 [talk] HKU - Theater and Technology
RESIDENCIESGARDENING, DeSingel, Het Huis, instrument inventors initiative, WORM, Performance Technology Lab, Pianofabriek, C-Takt