Nina van Hartskamp (1990) is a mixed media artist. She graduated in 2020 at Rietveld Academie in Amsterdam. Her projects are research based and combine text, textiles, organic materials, photography, film, audio and performance and focus on the relationship between humans and their environment. They often develop through interactions with people and places in her direct surroundings. Such places include her local neighbourhood, a Hungarian village, her mother, a museum, people’s bedrooms, a lover, a train station, ect.

Whilst investigating shared spaces and collective narratives, she creates experiences in which both participants and the audience are invited to question normative perspectives and reflect on their relationship with others, humans and non-humans alike.

During her residency at iii, Nina will continue development of her project ‘Worlds Within’ in which she explores the notion of co-existence as a crucial part of life on earth by drawing attention to our essential companionship with microbes.

“My research on Worlds Within has led me on a journey across scales and to the increasing realisation that ‘our’ world encompasses many worlds depending on each other in countless ways.

I was inspired by the overview effect – a cognitive shift in awareness experienced by astronauts after seeing the earth from outer space which is said to evoke interconnected ‘one-world-feelings’ and a renewed sense of environmental responsibility. 

I wondered if it was possible to create a similar effect, but rather than a grand overview, a more intimate and inclusive perspective: an ‘in-view effect’.

I have collected and cultivated the microbial life in the bedrooms of various people by exposing petri-dishes to the air while they sleep.  After incubating the cultures, they are photographed and presented as planets, worlds within the world. “

Over the course of her residency Nina will develop an ultrasonic fog screen as a means to display her worlds, highlighting the presence of the microbes in the air around us.

Nina van Hartskamp will be a guest resident at iii workspace in May and June 2022 and will present the outcome of her residency on June 18th.

iii’s residency program is made possible through the support of Creative Industries Fund NL and the Creative Europe program of the European Union.