Are we?
2026 – ongoing
Thermal photography, ceramics and image transfer
Variable dimensions

Are we? is an evolving installation in which Olga brings together individual thermal portraits on unique, hand-shaped ceramic objects. Each object represents one person and is made only once.

Wagemans uses thermal imaging, a technique that registers heat rather than visible light. It reveals what normally remains invisible to the human eye, while at the same time outward characteristics such as age, gender and skin colour begin to fade. The familiar visual markers through which we recognize and categorize one another become less distinct.

Anyone can become part of Are we?. Olga photographs people of different ages, backgrounds and origins, exploring what remains when the differences through which we commonly define ourselves and others begin to disappear. The work questions the relationship between individual identity and the collective.

Are we? has no fixed or final form. New portraits can continuously be added, while individual objects can leave the installation and exist independently. As its composition changes, each presentation becomes a temporary constellation of an ever-evolving collective.