Nada Gambier

Nada Gambier

Nada Gambier is an eclec­tic artist who­se work is lin­ked to the­a­ter, dan­ce, per­for­man­ce and the visu­al arts. Her reper­to­ry con­sists of instal­la­ti­ons, sta­ge works and works made for various public and pri­va­te spa­ces. She stu­died dan­ce in London (London Contemporary Dance School at The Place 1997 – 2000) and Brussels (P.A.R.T.S. research cycle 2000 – 2002). Since 2003 Nada has been making her own work. Between 2003 and 2008 she was an artist in resi­den­ce in WpZimmer in Antwerp and in 2008 she foun­ded the com­pa­ny Action Scénique together with her col­lea­gues Etienne Guilloteau and Claire Croizé (-2016). From 2010 – 2012 she was also a research artist in resi­den­ce with L’L in Brussels. In 2015 Nada foun­ded her own com­pa­ny Nada & Co. that today pro­du­ces most of her acti­vi­ties. In 2017 – 2018 Nada was artist in resi­den­ce at Cas-Co in Leuven. Nada cre­a­tes in the spa­ce bet­ween rea­son and non-sen­se and enjoys the poten­ti­al that ari­ses from the col­li­si­on bet­ween facts and fic­ti­on, per­for­ma­ti­vi­ty and spon­ta­nei­ty. Her work often flirts with the bor­ders bet­ween the­a­tri­ca­li­ty and abstrac­ti­on and she is drawn to things that she doe­sn’t under­stand or can­not grasp. For Nada the cre­a­ti­ve pro­cess is about moving from an int­ui­ti­ve pla­ce to a pla­ce whe­re an inner logic appe­ars, spe­ci­fic to the com­bi­na­ti­on of the dif­fe­rent ele­ments brought into the pro­cess. The non-spec­ta­cu­lar, the absurd and an ongo­ing desi­re to reve­al the extra­or­di­na­ry in ordi­na­ry life belong to her most known tra­de­marks as an artist. Since 2014 she has been focu­sing on long-term pro­jects in which the sepa­ra­ti­on bet­ween research, cre­a­ti­on pro­cess and public event can be con­fu­sed and/​or abandoned.

Over the years Nada has cre­a­ted seve­r­al pie­ces for the sta­ge; Confessions- the Autopsy of a Performance(2003), Act of Living- Catalogue of Failure (2006), Once upon a time in Petaouchnok(2008) and Fiction in Action (2012). In 2013 she made a series of video instal­la­ti­ons cal­l­ed Mechanics of Emotion (A port­rait, Spectator andThe weight of invi­si­ble pain). In 201314 Nada cre­a­ted Untamed Thingliness and We are no lon­ger here, two short per­for­man­ces made to fit diver­se spa­ces and con­texts (sta­ges but also gal­lery spa­ces, ware­hou­ses, apart­ments etc). At the end of 2014 Nada began wor­king on Monstrous Encounters of Clowns- An attempt to swal­low the world, a two year pro­cess during which she cre­a­ted the performance/​con­cert Block 1, the performance/​instal­la­ti­on Block 2 and Block 3, a per­for­ma­ti­ve rea­ding and a film on loop as well as a group cre­a­ti­on that took the form of a per­for­man­ce in an open spa­ce whe­re the audien­ce was invi­ted to obser­ve but also to play along.

Between 2017 and 2019 Nada devel­o­ped The Voice of a City, a mul­ti-dis­ci­pli­na­ry pro­ject resul­ting in, among other things, per­for­man­ces and exhi­bi­ti­ons but also the publi­ca­ti­on of a book. 

Nada also col­la­bo­ra­tes on other artists’ pro­jects as a per­for­mer and artis­tic advi­sor. She has wor­ked a.o. with Kate MacIntosh, Edit Kaldor, Charlotte Vanden Eynde, Diederik Peeters, Forced Entertainment, Tim Etchells, Simone Aughterlony and Jorge Léon, Maria Jerez and Phil Hayes (see various artis­tic col­la­bo­ra­ti­ons page for more info). 

Nada is cur­rent­ly focu­sing on research pro­ces­ses that inves­ti­ga­te how arts prac­ti­ses mer­ge rea­li­ty with fic­ti­on, abstrac­ti­on and poe­try. She also con­ti­nues Merging Traffic, an ongo­ing wri­ting prac­ti­ce together with Mark Etchells. In 2021 she is also inter­na­ti­o­nal colum­nist for the new onli­ne the­a­ter maga­zi­ne ACT II