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sorry we are close(d)

solo show

Funded and supported by Coventry Artspace and Coventry Biennial (GB)

series of sculptures and installations to be experienced from the street re-imagines a post-covid-19 futurity in the city. Exploring notions of consumption, and collective grief and healing in a time where art venues are closed in the UK .

Levitating at the intersection of pain and love melissandre (now known as n:u) uses the current context of a never coming ‘post-Covid 19’ and an ever awaited revolution as starting points. They assemble embodied transitions felt in their flesh, navigating Other’s ways to be in the public space, to (r)evolve as Black/queer, and to process exile (forced and voluntarily) in time of global pandemic. Questions of solidarity, futurity, racial capitalism, aesthetics and archiving intersect.

image credit: Mandip Singh Seehra, sorry we are closed, installation view Arcadia Gallery (GB), 2021

Credit Mandip Singh Seehra 1756123077 n:u (melissandre varin)

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

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

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