Nina Staehli has realized interventions, performances and art exhibitions in Switzerland, Germany, France, Italy and the United States. Her first work cycles consist of sculptures, paintings and installations. Given the fact that the conventional canvas has been absent in Staehli’s raw and expressive painting from the very beginning, the canvas being replaced by everyday materials such as corrugated boards or paper bags, Staehli’s art departs from the sheltered space of traditional art. In a second phase, her artworks metamorphose into wearable sculptures, i.e., the so-called "Big Heads", which in turn become props for interacting with the real world in performances and videos. Drawing on years of acting experience, she integrates photography, film, literature and theater into her unique body of work, and has collaborated with curators, museums, galleries, writers and art journalists to do so. She has also carried out a number of site-specific art projects in Switzerland and Berlin.
Zurich University of the Arts, Switzerland / Walter Huerlimann's sculpture class
Istituto d'Arte G. Ballardini, Faenza, Italy
Acting school, Rome
Nina Staehli’s solo exhibitions have never been mere presentations of her work. She has always based them, and still bases them, on real or fictional people or subjects, such as gentrification. She researches her subject matter for a long time, immersing herself in it as she develops entire work complexes of videos and performances that she makes both by herself and with the help of her production team. It is for these performances that she creates her mask-like "Big Heads", sculptures and paintings. This mix turns Staehli’s exhibitions into theatrical productions that play out before, during and after the opening of the show.
2005 sotterraneo-souterrain-untergrund, Kosmos culture foundation, Zug, Switzerland
2005 sotterraneo-souterrain-untergrund, Spazio della Volta, Genoa, Italy
2007 de:Kunsthalle Luzern, Mata Hari, Lucerne, Switzerland
2008 touching heroes, Billing gallery, Zug, Switzerland
2008 Rolli Contemporanei im Palazzo Pallavicini, Genoa, Italy
2009 touching heroes & katalyse, Art Seefeld gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
2010 Ruby Dean, Visarte gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
2010 Ruby Dean and The White Silence, kh15 gallery Berlin, Germany
2011 Ruby Dean and The White Silence, Billing gallery, Zug, Switzerland
2011 Processione, Galleria Studio 44, Genoa, Italy
2013 Glorias & touching heroes, Casa del Arte, Zurich, Switzerland
2013 Head Download, de:Kunsthalle Luzern, Switzerland
2015 Glory Land, SCHAURAUM, Lucerne, Switzerland
2015 Glory Land, Heidmann Art Salon, Kansas City, MO, USA
2015 Glory Land, Isabel Gabrijel gallery, Berlin, Germany
2015 International Monkey Business, with es:Alejandro Thornton, SCHAURAUM, Lucerne, Switzerland
2016 self-portraits – My life as a dog, SCHAURAUM, Lucerne, Switzerland
2016 International Monkey Business with es:Alejandro Thornton, Proyecto ACE, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2017 Cupiditas, Lokal int., Biel, Switzerland
2017 Quartet of Bambi, SCHAURAUM, Lucerne, Switzerland
2019 Battlefields of Cupiditas, museum of modern art, Fuerth, Germany
2019 Battlefields of Cupiditas, museum of modern art, Zofingen, Switzerland
Nina Staehli’s performances are always set in public spaces and never announced in advance. Her goal is to test herself as an artist, the artworks and interventions in a place that has nothing to do with art. The audience is thus a tabula rasa, encountering her art without any preconceived notions. Moreover, due to the minimal action of the performance participants, viewers are forced to confront themselves and their own emotions. As a result, the audience’s reactions are necessarily immediate, occasionally heated. In the style of early female performance artists of the 1960s – e.g., Yoko Ono or Marina_Abramović – Staehli’s actions are probing the power of art and the mindset of the audience.
2005 sotterraneo-souterrain-untergrund, sculpture burials in Switzerland, Italy, France
2006 touching heroes on the road, worldwide
2007 touching heroes, Helvetiaplatz, Zurich, Switzerland
2007 touching heroes, Theaterplatz, Basle, Switzerland
2007 System & Uniform, Kik-Box UDK, The Berlin Wall, Berlin, Germany
2009 Ruby Dean, burning of the art installation, Gepp AR, USA
2010 The Holy Pig of Berlin, Rosenthaler Platz, Berlin, Berlin
2011 Ruby Dean and de:Tim Krohn, Cabaret Voltaire, Zurich, Switzerland
2011 Stock & Change, Zollhaus, Zug, Switzerland
2012 A feast for Yoshi + Moshi in Cabaret Voltaire, de:Kunsthalle Luzern, Switzerland
2012 Culture Clash with Yoshi + Moshi, Zug, Switzerland
2012 The Holy Pig of Berlin in Genoa, Italy
2012 Last Supper, Substitut, Berlin, Germany
2013 Occupy de:ORF III, A feast for Yoshi + Moshi, Vienna, Austria
2014 Glory Land, Substitut, Berlin, Germany
2014 The Holy Pig of Berlin in Basle, de:Elisabethenkirche (Basel), Switzerland
2014 Last Supper, Galerie Weiertal, Winterthur, Switzerland
2014 TearHead, 21c Museum Hotels, Bentonville AR, USA
2014 TearHead, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City MO, USA
2015 Casa Paradiso, Zurich, Switzerland
2015 The Wedding with Remo Hegglin, Zug, Switzerland
2015 International Monkey Business, Social Media Performance, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City MO, USA
2016 The Holy Pig of Berlin, Fabrikutop, Brunnen, Switzerland
2017 Casa Paradiso, Sonntags-Club, Berlin, Germany
2008 Then we take Berlin, Substitut, Berlin, Germany
2011 Video Ruby Dean, es:Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires, Argentina
2011 Nel segno della donna, it:Museo d'arte contemporanea Villa Croce and in the Commenda di Prè Theatre-Museum, Genoa, Italy
2012 EXSTASI, studios id, Berlin, Germany
2012 KUNSTpause, Zug, Switzerland
2012 Video Processione, Sihlquai 55, Zurich, Switzerland
2014 Segrete – Tracce di Memoria, Palazzo Ducale, Genoa, Italy
2014 Der helle Wahnsinn, Head Download installation, Voegele Kulturzentrum, Pfäffikon, Switzerland
2014 YESTERDAY-TOMORROW, Galerie Weiertal, Winterthur, Switzerland
2015 IMAGO MUNDI, Cini Foundation, Venice, Italy
2015 Where did your dark dreams come from?, Kreuzberg Pavillon, Berlin, Germany
2016 What in the world?, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City MO, USA
2016 Fabrikutop, Brunnen, Switzerland
2016 Thermik, Kunsthalle m3, Berlin, Germany
2017 Silver Screen Paintings, SCHAURAUM, Lucerne, Switzerland
2017 Biennale Le Latitudini dell'arte, Palazzo Ducale, Genova, Italy
Films and shooting locations
At first glance, Nina Staehli’s videos appear unsettling, sometimes even heavy-hearted. And, on a narrative level, there doesn’t seem to be much going on: the videos break with all conventions of suspense and plot as the artist shuns any and all knowledge of film norms and rules. What’s more, Staehli does not bestow upon her "Big Head" protagonists any form of verbal articulation. And yet, it is precisely this reduced state that, as in her performances, inspires the imagination of the audience in her videos. Because for those who engage in the slow river, the forlornness and melancholy of the figures with their big heads and clumsy movements will turn into poetry, and the pace of time will gradually slacken and soften. Out of the minimalistic plot and visual material, each viewer constructs his or her own film that is only enhanced by the soundtrack made for the film and forms an artistic quality of its own. And, given that the "Big Head" characters make do without any language, the soundtrack becomes the individual characters’ idiosyncratic means of expression.
2007 Die Kunsttäter, Berlin, Germany
2007 Die Unterwanderung, Berlin, Germany
2010 Ruby Dean and the White Silence, Bernina Pass, Switzerland
2011 Mount'n Dean, Zug, Switzerland
2012 Massive Attack, Zug, Switzerland
2012 Chou de Voltaire, Zug, Switzerland
2012 Culture Clash, Berlin, Germany
2012 Homeless, Hossegor, France
2012 Last Supper, Zug, Switzeland
2013 Enzo Genesis, Berlin, Germany
2013 Occupy ORF – A feast for Yoshi + Moshi, Vienna, Austria
2014 Casa Nostra, San Vito lo Capo, Sicily, Italy
2015 Glory Land, Charleston SC, Birchwood TN, Nashville TN, Kansas City MO, Mountain Home AR, Winslow AR, USA
2016 Lost Lost, Labenne, France
2017 Quartet of Bambi, Lucerne, Switzerland
2018 Battlefields of Cupiditas, Brunnen, Switzerland
In line with her universalistic approach, Staehli always seeks out working partners who are best suited to the specific project she is working on. The nature of her ever-changing collaborative work is similar to the way in which the audience mirrors what she does in an unprotected public space. Time and again her collaborative work has provided her with new ideas in a way that a fixed working arrangement could not.
Hans-Peter Miksch: exhibitions
Claudia Waldner Hartmann: exhibitions
Kotburschi collective: exhibitions and movies
Dr. Heinz Stahlhut: text
es:Alejandro Thornton: exhibitions and art projects
Virginia Monteverde: exhibitions
Dakota Suite: film music
Michael Sutter: text
Alexandra Koenz: exhibitions
The Heidmann Art Salon: exhibitions
Matthias Krieg: film music
Judith Revers: de:ORF III / film
Alessa Panayiotou: exhibitions and performances
Irene Mueller: text
Bettina Gockel: text and performances
es:Graciela Taquini: exhibitions
de:Tim Krohn: performances
Daniel Hunziker: exhibitions and scenography
Michel Kiwic: film, camera and editing
Urs Kuenzi: exhibitions, performances und text
Sibylle Omlin: text
Thomas Binzegger: film music
Remo Hegglin: film, camera and editing
Ronald Schenkel: text
Falco Meyer: text
2007 artist in residence in Berlin awarded by the Canton of Zug, Switzerland
2011 artist in residence, Casa Zia Lina, Elba, Italy
2011 artist in residence, Sitterwerk foundry, St. Gallen, Switzerland
2013 artist in residence, de:ORF III, Vienna, Austria
2014 FLEX travel award in the USA awarded by the Canton of Zug, Switzerland
2014 artist in residence, Kansas City Artists Coalition, Kansas City MO, USA
2016 artist in residence, Casa Zia Lina, Elba, Italy
Sotterraneo-souterrain-untergrund Montagverlag, Zurich 2005. (exhibition book, 38 pp.)
Touching heroes, Cham 2007. (exhibition book, 59 pp.)
And Ruby Dean, Montagverlag, Zurich 2011, NEBIS ISBN 978-3-03-302800-5
The Resistance – Part 1, Zug 2013, NEBIS ISBN 978-3-033-04137-0
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