O 33  

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O33 (OU Sansan) is an artist from Inner Mongolia, China, and is currently a PhD candidate in Sculpture at Kanazawa College of Art, Japan. Through material research and artistic practice using sheep intestine, her work explores the ambiguity of ibasho (a place of belonging).

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Raised as an ethnic Mongolian in Inner Mongolia and later relocating to Japan, O33 has continually reflected on an identity that cannot be defined by a single ethnicity, culture, or language. Drawing from this personal experience, her practice investigates the liminal space between binary oppositions such as belonging and displacement, life and death, inside and outside, and self and other.

The primary material in her work, sheep intestine, is deeply embedded in Mongolian daily life and cultural traditions while also being an organ that once existed within a living body. Even after being separated from the body, it continues to respond to light, humidity, and the passage of time. For O33, these ongoing transformations embody traces of life and the accumulation of time.

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Her practice emphasizes process over predetermined form. Through repeated bodily actions such as inflating, twisting, tying, and drying, she allows the material to respond to its surrounding environment and transform over time. By working within the unpredictable interactions between material, body, and environment, she explores modes of existence that move beyond fixed meanings and clearly defined boundaries.

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In recent years, O33 has been selected for the Homo Faber Fellowship 2025/26 and has participated in exhibitions and projects including GO FOR KOGEI 2023, the 6th Triennale of Kogei in Kanazawa and Homo Faber 2026. Her practice continues to develop through the reciprocal relationship between artistic research and making.