Nicola Unger

video - performance - installation - autobiographical - documentary

I am German. I am female. What is there to 'state' with or about art? What is there to manifest? Art is a personal, in my case multi-disciplinary, performative, idiosyncratic strategy to uncover what is unknown to me, to explain to myself what is going on in this world, to find out about how and which things are connected. Each project is different, I start with a sea of ​​open questions and ideas and a priori am hesitant to state a thing. Except one: without generosity, art is pointless.

  • Portfolio
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    • MY GERMAN ARBORETUM

    Performance

    Rhein - Ausflug der toten Mädchen

    Performance

    • 15-01-2024 t/m 13-03-2024
    • In collaboration with: Tina Urban, Culture Moves Europe, CBK Practice Contribution, LVR Cologne
    • Location: Kunstraum Christina 6, Cologne
    • Residency in order to create a performance about the river Rhein that flows through the city of Cologne. Working with folded paper, maps, autobiographical material, photos.
    • https://www.tinaurban.de/im-kunstraum-christina-6/gaeste/

    RHEIN! – feat. Anna Seghers, The Dead Girls' Outing

    Residencies / exchange

    • 01-03-2023 t/m 15-05-2023
    • In collaboration with: Goethe Institut Rotterdam
    • As part of the Goethe Investigating residencies I research past and future of a river. The Rhine, glorified as 'father' Rhine, romanticized by artists, abused by nationalists. How will his future look like? After drying up and making an end to transport between Switzerland, Germany and The Netherlands, will he find another industrial purpose - as a resource for Lithium? Image: Sander van Wettum
    • https://www.goethe.de/ins/nl/nl/kul/gin/investigating-rhine.html

    ART XL - My German Arboretum

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 17-03-2023 t/m 10-04-2023
    • In collaboration with: Zeebelt Foundation, TENT, Municipality of Rotterdam, De Groot Fund, Elise Mathilde Foundation, Goethe Institute NL, Tijl Fund (PBF)
    • Location: Baanhof Rotterdam,
    • My German arboretum is my family tree. Mapping the lives and deaths of my ancestors. Mapping their names, positions and characteristics. About centuries and through History. 'I have spent a lot of my life making space for the dead. Only the rigorous practice of history can help us let the dead go; you can only forget them by remembering.' Hillary Mantel
    • https://www.artcentralrotterdam.nl/baanhof.html

    Museum night. European Breakup. Invisible Thread that connects us all

    Exhibition / presentation

    • 07-03-2020 t/m 07-03-2020
    • In collaboration with: CBK Rotterdam, Czech Center, Goethe Institut Rotterdam
    • I was supposed to show my work at the Museum Night and decided to ask other fellow artists to exhibit as well. Each work had 'a thought' towards Europe: Christine Saalfeld, Paul Perry, Caio Vita and Jeanine Verloop, Robin Kolleman, Regina Wenig and Martin Lejeune, Luis Maly, Katerina Konarovská. Image: Christine Saalfeld's research
    • https://www.goethe.de/ins/nl/nl/sta/rot/ver.cfm?fuseaction=events.detail&event_id=21770549

    SAMTMANN

    Performance

    • 03-09-1999 t/m 30-11-2019
    • In collaboration with: Kampnagel Hamburg, Sophiensaele Berlin, Galerie Feld+Haus Frankfurt
    • Collaboration with Regina Wenig. A long-term series of documentary theater performances. Based on interviews with a family with four young children. Over the course of 20 years we met and documented how their lives changed. Each time they entered the stage together with us. (And took a great risk). Image: mother of the family in her original wedding dress during a performance

    MERGE

    Performance

    • 02-04-2013 t/m 13-12-2017
    • In collaboration with: Rijksmuseum Amsterdam, Cinedans Film Festival Amsterdam, Camera Japan Film Festival Rotterdam, Theater Rotterdam, Winterlicht Schiedam
    • Choreographer Sato Endo invited me to create the visuals for her piece MERGE. An indoor and outdoor performance in which dancers, video projection, sound and surroundings come together and merge. Site specific work that changes with each location. Image: Performer Angelina Deck on square 1940
    • http://kenzokusuda.com/Merge.html

    Acknowledgments

      Scholarship

    • R+D subsidy CBK Rotterdam

    • 2013
      Scholarship

    • TIJL Fund, PBF

    • 2018
      Scholarship

    • Makers counter Stichting Droom+Daad

    • 2021
      Scholarship

    • Practical contribution CBK Rotterdam

    • 2023
      Pricing

    • New Concepts Prize, Performance AUDIENCE OF ONE, International Animation/Puppetry Festival Warsaw

    • 2014
      Pricing

    • BNG Workspace, Room 5 Filmhuis The Hague, Nomination

    • 2012
      Pricing

    • Audience Award Performance PHANTOM STORY, International Animation/Puppetry Festival Warsaw

    • 2012
      Pricing

    • Special prize for the Performance PHANTOM STORY, Hessische Theatertage

    • 2009