n:u (melissandre varin)
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.
Selected Performances
2025 On Substance, Copeland Gallery (GB)
2025 FREE(HOLD), MAIA (GB)
2025 my ancestors and i are burning a house - together, Mimosa House (GB)
2024 doucement, Kunsthal Mechelen (BE)
2024 one for the road, un dernier pour la route, Fierce Festival (GB)
2024 Black people on bicycles (in the sun) - artikulationsprozesse, PAE Aktionslabor (DE)
2024 dirty nails (les ongles noirs), Bullring Market, Eastside Projects (GB)
2023 a rendition of stifled ghost-spells, Ikon Gallery (GB)
2023 suturing a wound , itch (GB)
2023 PAPAYA, Kulturfabrik cultural centre (LU)
2022 de la boue et des racines, Julie's Bicycle and MAIA (GB)
2022 Who's gonna clean the mess of/in your garden? TJ Boulting gallery (GB)
2021 funeral of normativity, Coventry Artspace (GB)
Selected Residencies and Fellowships
2023/7 Eastside Projects incidental artist (GB)
2024/5 MAIA fellow (GB)
2024 Burned House Horizon, Bidston Observatory (GB)
2024 artikulationsprozesse, PAE Aktionslabor (DE)
2024 les ongles noirs experimental residency, Ban Workshop (SE)
2023 performance art laboratory,Vivid Projects and Ikon Gallery (GB)
2023 papaya, residence de création, KuFa, Kulturfabrik cultural centre (LU)
2023 papaya, research residency, Centre de Création Chorégraphique Luxembourgeois TROIS C-L (LU)
2022 B.O.O.K residency conditions of creation, Talking Birds (GB)
2022 How to build a loving environment?Talking Birds, (GB)
2022 Spatialising the City of Dreams Residency, MAIA, (GB)
2022 papaya, Warwick Arts Centre, Coventry (GB)
2021 ten-day laboratory, international project Africa/UK: Transforming Art Ecologies, New Arts Exchange (MA)
2021/2 Cities of Cultures: Sharing Practices of Storytelling between Casablanca and Coventry, Lou Sarabadzic (GB)
2021 Black TestimonieS, Small Bells Ring, Studio Morison (GB)
2020/1 Building Our Own Knowledge (B.O.O.K), research and development, Coventry Biennial (GB)
2020 (re)valuing the labour it takes to breath, be, perform together, Talking Birds, Coventry (GB)
2020/2 Reach out artist/ Self-designed seasonal Residencies, Arcadia Gallery, Coventry Artspace (GB)
2018 Hybrid artistic researcher, Un Oeuf Maison d'artistes, Artists' House (Martinique)
Liberatory Infrastructures
2023/4 les ongles noirs (dirty nails), Eastside Projects (GB) Ban Workshop (SE)
2020/3 B.O.O.K (Building Our Own Knowledge): a Black-led arts collective which offered residencies, commissions, and curatorial interventions (GB)
2019/2023 Papaya: afro-feminist live art collective (GB-LU)
2020/3 Open Call: a re-distribution vehicle for performance artist-researchers, Studies in Theatre and Performance journal (GB)
Selected Workshops, Mentoring, Facilitation
2024 throwing up/a party (or making a wish) - Syllabus VII, Eastside Projects (GB)
2024 M.I/L!K? digestive - Transition + Transit, FABRIC Nottingham (GB)
2024 reverberation, tending to your art ecosystem - BEAF Arts Co (GB)
2023 What happens after we scream?, Sonic Signal by Abbas Zahedi, Chandos Primary School (GB)
2023 Jailbreaking Race: Abolition and Fugitive Blackness by Marquis Bey, Lines of Flight 2023:BLACK METHODS
2023 together in the mud, Vivid Projects (GB)
2022 Who's gonna clean the mess of/in your garden?, Grand Union (GB)
2022 A warm hug, casual talk and rocking on pillows together with Roxane Mbanga, San Mei Gallery (GB)
2022 Lead performance artist mentor, Outside In Explorer Programme,The New Art Gallery,(GB)
2022 invited curator, Wolverhampton Arts School Degree Art Show (GB)
2022 (Black) liberation?, Papaya, Warwick Arts Centre (GB)
2021 facilitator, Art For The People, facilitation of a Citizens’ Assembly, Talking Birds (GB)
Group shows
2025 Burned House Horizon , Mimosa House (GB)
2022 half-pronounced incantations, a toilet and bathroom installation, MAIA (GB)
2021 linoleum dreams - Coventry Biennial (GB)
2021 les mains de ma mère - All Bound Together?, Shape Arts (GB)
2021 multiplicity of us, Arcadia Gallery (GB)
2020 Red is the colour... my mother - Art and Activism, Outside In (GB)
Solo exhibitions
2024 dirty nails (les ongles noirs), Eastside Projects (GB)
2021 sorry we are close(d), Coventry Artspace Arcadia City Gallery (GB)
2020 a living space, Coventry Artspace Arcadia City Gallery (GB)
Awards and Grants
2024 Project Grant Arts Council England, les ongles noirs (dirty nails)
2023 Nominated Recipient of the Henry Moore Artist Award
2023 DYCP Arts Council England, anointment, mentorships by Other Spaces; CARE; Michelle Philipps; Sym Mendez; and Daniel Lukehurst, (DE, GB, FI)
2021 National Lottery Community Fund, B.O.O.K
2021 international change maker UK City of Culture British council
2020 Coventry Artspace in Action Award
2018 EU leadership fund, hybrid researcher (Martinique)
Creative consultancy
2024/5 panelist, UK partner award, Unlimited (GB)
2022 For What It’s Worth / Creative Research Cluster on human breast milk, Jess Dobkin, Welcome Collection (GB)
2021/2 Creative consultant, Black Queer n'done, Coventry Pride (GB)
2021 movement consultant, Motherland, Ayesha Jones, Unlimited (GB)
Education
2018/20 (voluntarily discontinued) PhD in Theatre and Performance Studies and Sciences du Language, Universities of Warwick and Luxembourg (GB, LU)
2015/16 MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development,UCL Development Planning Unit (GB)
2013/14 Intensive Mandarin course, Fudan University (CN).
2011/15 BA in International Management, Toulouse Business School (FR)
Selected talks and conversations
2024 how to make a living, BA fine Art students from Birmingham School of Art
2023 eco-feminist intimacies and my performance arts practice, MA Contemporary Performance program, Liverpool Hope University
2021 Institutional AntiRacism, panel conversation, TAPRA conference
2021 Black imagination(s), with melissandre varin, Ari Melenciano, and Suriya Aisha, curated by Amahra Spence
2021 Visibility BlackArtProject
2021 artist talk, Roehampton University
2021 anti-racism and performance arts, Brunel University
Selected development opportunities
2022 Fierce Lab, Fierce festival (GB)
2022 (Algo/Afro) futures, Vivid Project (GB)
2021 curatorial training, Outside In (GB)
2020, The Film liberation Project (GB)
Prior to working in the arts
I worked in wine, non-governmental Fair Trade organisations, and have been part of feminist and citizen assemblies in France, Luxembourg, Martinique, Germany, and Lao PDR.
Helping Artists Keep Going
Axis is an artist-led charity supporting contemporary visual artists with resources, connection, and visibility.