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n:u (melissandre varin)

Birmingham
n:u (melissandre varin) develops an ecologically care-full practice of receptivity, encounter, reciprocity and transformation, creating performances, installations, sculptures and liberatory infrastructures.
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n:u (melissandre varin) (b. Gonesse, France) is an atmosphere-maker based in Birmingham, UK. Working as an atmosphere-maker emerges from their Congolese sapeur heritage, and their practice as an environmental artist. They develop an ecologically care-full practice of receptivity, encounter, reciprocity and transformation, creating performances, installations, sculptures and liberatory infrastructures. Their practice invites different ways to be with change by blurring colonial lines between designers and participants and making unexpected pairings between materials and concepts. Being self-taught in the arts, they hold a master’s degree in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College of London (UCL).

n:u (melissandre varin) has collaborated with transnational artistic centres, such as Eastside Projects (GB), Ban Workshop (SE) and KutlturFabrik (LU). They have created the vision for several art initiatives, such as les ongles noirs (dirty nails) (2022-2024) - an across continents experimental art project centring play, grief, and the unknown; B.O.O.K (2020-2023) - an art collective and curatorial project supporting Black artists in the UK; and Open Call (2020-2023) - an online (now archived) platform commissioning and redistributing resources to artist-researchers. They have contributed to exhibitions, talks/workshops, and performance programmes at various institutions Ikon Gallery, Roehampton University, and FABRIC, among others. They have been invited to residencies such as artikulationsprozesse, PAE Aktionslabor (DE), Talking Birds (GB), Our Teaching Takes Shape As We Go international project Africa/UK: Transforming Art Ecologies (MA). They were a 2024 MAIA Fellow (GB) and are a Steering Group member at CVAN WM 2025-2028 (GB). They were a nominated recipient of the Henry Moore Artist Award 2022, a 2021 International Changemaker awardee by the City of Culture Trust and the British Council, and a Coventry Artspace in Action awardee in 2020.

Lived Experience

n:u (melissandre varin) was born in a lower class Black family with disabled and chronically ill parents. n:u (melissandre varin) is a Black queer and neurodivergent Pisces parent. They love turning dreams into reality.

 

de la boue et des racines

an art, library, and rest station

digital tour: here

commissioned by Coventry Biennial

image credit: Ayesha Jones, Marley Starskey Butler, linoleum dreams, installation view Coventry Bienniale (GB) 2021-2022

linoleum dreams

by n:u (melissandre varin) and Jérémie Priam

Digital Video

duration 08 min 29 second

supported by Oustide In (GB)

Presenting the Caribbean banana trade as a site of desire and displacement, n:u and Jeremie’s audio-visual assemblage spans 4,000 miles. On Martinique (FR), Jeremie’s aunt Lilianne shares her knowledge of growing organic bananas. On the island, toxic pesticides sprayed on banana crops have contaminated the landscape…

Handle with care/ prendre avec soin

extraction of knowledge (2021)

how to throw mud against white walls

anointment

les mains de ma mère

by n:u (melissandre varin) and Sym Stellium

digital video

12min 28sec

filmed and edited by Rachel Bunce

audio description & captioning by Seán Elder

Two people in motion, using Palestinian olive oil and soil - oscillating between care and violence amidst a rapidly transforming urban landscape.

Commissioned by: Byuka aka Fortune Tailed Beast & Giulia Casalini for Burned House Horizons

Image credit: Eda Sancakdar Onikinci, embrace,…

embrace

re-assembling

dirty nails (les ongles noirs)

A.WAKE

one for the road (un dernier pour la route)

Featured in

Curated

Highlights: 1 - 7 September, 2025

By Harlan Whittingham
Announcement

The Axis Fellowship 2025: Recipients Announced!

By Axis
Collaboration

Artists in Conversation: Anna F Hughes, Dorothy Hunter and n:u (melissandre varin)

By Axis

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