Marnix de Nijs
Meta.Morf 2024 – [up]Loaded Bodies / Kjøpmannsgata Ung Kunst / Conference April 19 / Curator: Zane Cerpina
Gravitational Bodies
In his presentation, Marnix de Nijs will focus on his full body installations that allow for different kinds of perception; installations that break away from the stable image we hold of reality and recalibrate our senses and our orientation in time and space.
The interface between the body and technology forms an important basis for these works. Technology must literally merge, become absorbed into the body so that it becomes a co-determiner of perception. And here perception not only refers to how external stimuli are interpreted by the five senses, but also the feelings that come from within the body itself, the information that is derived from one’s own muscles and nerves. In many of his earlier works, participants are lured into physically demanding scenarios in order to immerse themselves in virtual environments, only to find out that the proprioceptional constraints of their physical bodies might hinder their full escape into virtual infinity.
In its turn our presence in the virtual world, hanging out on the web, looking at camera and satellite data changes our perception of the world. It not only extends our world but it makes it’s physical dimensionality as we know it disappear. It’s pre-eminently the interrelation between these physical constraints and this extended world that Marnix gives an artistic form.
During the presentation, he will also provide an overview of the research and development behind his latest work, “Gravitational Bodies.” This piece merges the physical intensity of an ambiguous anti-gravity interface with visuals of generated landscapes. It offers a cinematic journey where one can transcend gravity, abandon the constraints of the physical body, and immerse oneself in a realm of digital infinity. However, upon returning and reuniting with the physical body left behind on the emergency stretcher in the exhibition space, one may realize that this corporeal form is what sets us apart from mere algorithms.
Marnix de Nijs (NL) b. 1970, is a Rotterdam-based installation artist. After graduating as a sculptor in 1992, he focused his early career on sculpture, public space, and architecture. Since the mid 90’s, he has been a pioneer in researching the experimental use of media and technologies in Art. His works include mainly interactively experienced machines that play with the perception and control of image and sound, but also radical and humorous pieces such as his Bullet Proof Tent and the Physiognomic Scrutinizer belong to his oeuvre.
Impelled by the idea that technology acts as a driving force behind cultural change and is therefore capable of generating new experiences where societal habits and communication are rethought, his work thrives on the creative possibilities offered by new media, while critically examining their impact on contemporary society and human perception.
To create his technologically complex installations, de Nijs often relies on close collaborations with media labs, universities, developers, engineers, and professionals from the film and game industry.
De Nijs’ works have been widely exhibited at international art institutes, museums, and festivals. He won the Art Future Award (Taipei 2000) and received honorable mentions at the Transmediale award ( Berlin 2000), the Vida 5.0 award (Madrid 2002), and Prix Ars Electronica ( Linz 2013, 2005 & 2001). In 2005, he collected the prestigious Dutch Witteveen & Bos Art and Technology Price 2005, for his entire oeuvre.
Header graphics: “Gravitanioal Bodies” , courtesy of the artist.