Jan Nikolai Nelles

Jan Nikolai Nelles is a multi-disciplinary German artist born 1980 in Frankfurt/Main. He graduated from Offenbach University of Art and Design in 2011. In the past he founded an independent project space in Frankfurt/Main and co-founded a photography magazine. Since 2009 Jan Nikolai Nelles and Nora Al-Badri are working together. Their artistic practice oscillates between different fields such as visual and media art, documentary filmmaking and cultural activism. Their pieces deal with issues arising through hegemonic and neo-colonial power structures and representations between the Global South and North as well as with the various facets of war and its aftermath. Their artistic practice reflects on the absurdity of the human condition. The works interfere in social infrastructures by misbehavior performances or challenges institutions through civil disobedience aware of their artistic freedom. The collective pursues a critical re-evaluation of actual cultural commons, the power of representation through material objects of other cultures, their digital images as well as the concepts of heritage and identity politics schemes.