Nelly Blanken

Nelly Blanken is an interdisciplinary artist rooted in multimedia practices, theater, literature, and metalwork. Combining sculptural elements with sound, programming, and sometimes video, her work explores themes of identity and memory, transmission and distortion, as well as control, surveillance, and the relationship between humans and their environment.

Technology and materiality are approached as tools for engagement between people, art, and ideas. If time does not exist, then building bridges between analog and digital, past and future, can only help us understand and repair our present.

By inviting viewers to become participants, to engage their bodies in space without reinforcing power dynamics, Blanken aims to offer, through immersive and interactive installations, a platform for dialogue: a space suspended between fiction and reality, encouraging reflection not only on individual experiences but also on collective ones.

Holding degrees in French Literature, Maréchalerie, and Studio Arts, Nelly Blanken has studied a variety of topics from ethnology to philosophy as well as various languages, attempting to understand human nature and the connections that bind us to the world. Her background in theater, both as an actress and director, is reflected in the theatrical aspect of her installations. Blanken is an enthusiastic member of several artists' collectives, and has worked internationally under different pseudonyms as a live performer and in the field of experimental music, especially in France and the Netherlands. She is a firm believer that art can lead to better understanding of each other, reduce inequalities, and ultimately provide a safe, inclusive, and overall better society.

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