Cathelijne Montens (1978, NL) is an artist and designer. In the first years after graduating she worked on exhibition and interior designs and scenography. Recently she followed a Permaculture Design Course that she will apply to transform the land next to their studio space in Noordwijkerhout.
Krijn Christiaansen (1978, NL) is an artist and designer. He worked on commissioned assignments and competitions for the public space and participated in residency programs focusing on material- and field research.
In 2010 they founded their multifaceted practice KCCM.
Krijn Christiaansen and Cathelijne Montens, working together under the name KCCM, explore the ways public space and landscapes are created, used, experienced, and transformed by both human and non-human species. Their practice emphasizes not only the physical attributes of the environment but also the stories, myths, customs, and actions embedded within it.
Christiaansen and Montens have realized projects for various cultural institutions and organisations, including Stroom Den Haag, Kunstloc Brabant, Projectbureau OpTrek, BPD, Zone2Source, LAPS, Saga Prefecture in Japan, Droog, Floriade, Cemeti Arthouse in Yogyakarta, and numerous municipalities and provinces across the Netherlands. Their work has been exhibited in renowned museums and galleries such as the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen in Rotterdam, Stroom Den Haag, Centraal Museum in Utrecht, the Erasmushuis in Jakarta, the Institut Néerlandais in Paris, and the Japan Institute of Architects in Tokyo.
Public space, in the view of KCCM, is both a container of shared experiences and a platform for encountering difference. It can be both mundane and extraordinary, with spaces shaped by human interaction as much as by natural forces. Christiaansen and Montens’ work investigates the dynamic ways these spaces are shaped, used, and transformed.
They graduated from the Design Academy Eindhoven and continue to contribute to the field through their teaching at the Royal Academy of Art in The Hague and the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.