Artist talk with n:u (melissandre varin)

Please join us for an artist’s talk by UK/Benin based artist n:u (melissandre varin) on Tuesday, Nov.10th from 5-7pm. This presentation is part of n:u’s visit to Canada, where they will also be presenting a new performance art work as part of Our Bodies Keeping Scores, a curatorial project by Jess Dobkin at FADO Performance Art Centre in Toronto.

At LePARC, n:u will present their work and discuss cross-border collaborations, unearthing ancestral ceremonies, and share their explorations of liberatory infrastructures.

The talk will be followed by a Q&A, moderated by Professor Shauna Janssen, School of Performance, Concordia University, and Co-investigator of Hemispheric Encounters: Developing Transborder Research-Creation Practices (SSHRC PG).

The event is supported by York University, Concordia University, LePARC (Milieux Institute), and FADO Performance Art Centre.

n:u (melissandre varin) has been described as an atmosphere-maker, with a practice rooted in Congolese, Guadeloupean, and Beninese heritages. Building upon cross-border collaborations, they unearth ancestral ceremonies to invite shared moments of freedom. They make performance art works, installations, sculptures, and liberatory infrastructures. They play with unexpected pairings between materials, bodies, and concepts, disrupting colonial binaries and dominant narratives. n:u combines intuitive, embodied-knowledge with an approach grounded by Political Ecology from an MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College of London (UCL).

Recent presentations of their work include performances and exhibitions at Tate Britain (UK), Lọpọ Lọpọ (Benin), Ikon Gallery (UK), the OFF Dakar Biennale (Senegal), Glasgow Buzzcut (UK), Fierce Festival (UK), Kulturfabrik (Luxembourg), Mimosa House (UK), Kunstal Mechelen (Belgium), PAE Aktionslabor (Germany), Ceremony (UK), Contact Theatre (UK), Tangent Projects (Barcelona), and Eastside Projects (UK).

n:u has received awards from institutions including l’Ambassade de France x l’Institut français du Bénin (programme Inspiration Bénin, au coeur des mondes Africains), Franklin Furnace, and the Henry Moore Foundation,. They have held fellowships with Axis, John Feeney Trust, and Hood Futures Studio and serve as a steering group member for CVAN WM in the UK, alongside their role as an invited founding member of Popo Culture in Grand Popo, Benin. They have designed atmospheres and infrastructured unusual ways of working, including with longer-term collaborators Eastside Projects, Ban Workshop, and Future Ritual. n:u’s reparative practice is nourished by friendships, conversations with materials, spirits and ancestors, and homes like Finding Etherea.

Website: www.atmospher-maker.org