Nina Staehli is a Swiss artist who grew up in the city of Cham, Switzerland, now working in the mediums of installation, sculpture, painting, performance, video, and more . Still young, Nina went to the south and graduated in Rome, from 1983 to 1985, from the acting school “Il Cenacolo” of Fausto Costantini. In love with theatre, she remained deeply immersed in the field until the early 2000’s, with numerous productions. She then studied sculpture with Walter Huerlimann at the University of the Arts in Zurich, completed further training from at the Istituto d’Arte G. Ballardini (Italy) and moved to Berlin from 2008 to 2021, after which she came back to Switzerland.

In her work, Nina explores fundamental questions of human existence and the currents shaping our society. Through a precise selection of media –from film and photography, to sculpture and painting– she develops multilayered perspectives that unfold in narrative, site-specific installations. Her practice is defined by a distinctive material diversity and conceptual depth that reveal social contradictions and invite reflection on the fractures of the human condition. During her time at ´ace, Nina worked on a site-specific installation for the Políglota Room, where she installed printed pieces of paper, graphic editions, a projection, and two video pieces, all related to her ongoing series: Big Heads.

ARTIST STATEMENT

My artistic experience explores existence, the entire human condition and society as if in a laboratory. My research focuses on literature, philosophy, nature and history, as well as personal experience and travel. My approach is that of a scientist intensely engaged in research, the results of which are expressed through tran-smedia art, that is, through multiple artistic mediums. In this way, I can draw from a wide range of possibilities, rejecting strict demarcations between visual art genres and promoting transdisciplinary approaches, i.e. contrasting with science, technology or philosophy. Experimental approaches are therefore an essential part of my artistic practice, as are critical and socio-political reflection and debate, which are reflected in art experienced as action and communication. My individual works and artistic cycles are thus not isolated entities, but form a system that operates on different artistic levels, creating and developing my personal cosmos through the dramaturgy of storytelling. In my work, I do not allow myself to be tied down to a specific medium, as this would limit my research work; on the contrary, each artistic form involved makes its own specific contribution to the expression and understanding of my artistic system. Sculpture, film, installation, and painting give substance to my research, and each individual composition contributes in a distinctive way to the overall narrative while making its own specific contribution to the understanding of the artistic world being narrated.