Alumna Nadja Marcin ’10 in France Group Exhibition 'Even the rocks reach out to kiss you'

By
Brittany Nguyen
September 22, 2020

Alumna Nadja Marcin ’10 is showing in a group exhibition Even the rocks reach out to kiss you at Transpalette - Centre d'art Contemporain in Bourges, France.

Curated by Julie CrennEven the rocks reach out to kiss you is an “ecofeminist temple for gatherings of imaginations, ideas - collecting feminist thought and kinship,” said Marcin. This exhibition features 23 international artists who reflect on themes such as rural autonomy, ancient mythologies, sorority, sexuality, bodies, collaborations, and collective rituals.

The exhibit will feature Marcin’s “Jedi,” a C-Print, taken on the archaeological site El Fuerte de Samaipata in Bolivia. This performance-based photograph “speaks to questions about the ideology of conservation, defending territory, female bodies, and psyche via performance art,” Marcin said. 

In an artist statement, Marcin stated “My performance-based work, whether presented in video, photography or live settings, confronts elemental emotions and unleashes psychological mechanisms, examining inherent authorities in morals, culture, history, politics, and behavior. Driven by positive and deeply romantic ideals, I break down complex situations into experiences that are at once absurd, humorous, direct, imperfect, transparent, timely and, I mirror the contradictions of our human interrelations and reveal basic human necessities.”

Marcin is a German-born artist who lives and works in New York, USA, and NRW, Germany.  She came to study at Columbia after obtaining a Diploma of Fine Arts from the Department of New Media at Academy of Fine Arts Münster. In her performance-based work, Marcin examines the constructed persona, looking at the way the artist is an implicit figure. By creating a “theater of cinema” that the audience can be immersed in, Marcin brings awareness through a hyperbolic interpretation of relatable scenarios, enacts symbolic actions, catalyzing the visibility of hidden codes. Her work appropriates familiar imagery and mirrors the ambiguities of human behavior and psychological mechanism.

Even the rocks reach out to kiss you will open at Transpalette - Centre d'art Contemporain in Bourges, France this upcoming October 9, 2020 and runs through –January 16, 2021.