Origin of Reunion Island, 2007 (I to III), Pbl. Coll. Le Port

NIKUNJA is a Swiss - French interdisciplinary artist, since 1995 developing a concept of split authority and interactive matter through transmedia installations and public interactive art performances, which interrogate the energy between objects, subjects, materials, media. "When you approach two electrical wires to the right distance, you receive a third thing: a flame", he explains," thus any two opposing things approached rightously will create a new third appearance, impossible without the two. This gravitational and causal existential work is very subtle and the center of my art, inside of my paintings and inside of my transmedia work."

Since 1996 he is developping his work and research outside of the mainstream art-world and the laws generated by the ambition of the fashion and speculation orientated art market with a need for quickly recognizable, easy digestable works, easy for reproduction, confirming a common state of mind and state of ethical and moral values. He creates work, which allow the audience to evolve in a synthetic way through the psychic reality of the dialogue between the user and the artwork. Therefore he exposes at places relevant to his artwork and helping its understanding and its interaction. To Nikunja, art is the unique human tool to interrogate his condition beyond sience, philosophy, religious dogma and social convention to allow social well-being and the evolution of civilization.

Artwork to Nikunja is an interactive and interdiscplinary awareness and formulation, between medias, between the creator and the user, between the artwork and its cultural, political and geographical enviroment. Through all his works the subjective "human" touch stays evident, not allowing the flawless immaculate lie of "perfection" as "absolue truth" to end the evolutive journey of the user and thus, of our civilization.

Through his works of painting, installation, movie, video and performance, he interrogates the authorities which share the moment of creation and thus determine the authenticity of the final artwork. By their interactive and evolutionary quality, his works often are infinite as form, and change by the influence of each visitor/user: e.g. Fellini Now !, 2005 TENT. Rotterdam, 2008, Centre de l'Image, Le Port, Reunion Island, 2011 French Institute IFM, Mauritius
Sometimes their existence as such depend on the visitor, user:

The Reconstruction of the Tower of Babel: 2005 TENT. Rotterdam, 2011 IFM, Mauritius, 2013, artotheque, Saint Denis,Debarquadere Saint Paul,Salle ArtContemporain Tampon, Reunion Island

XANADU: THE BASTARD'S DREAM, selected by Okwui Enwezor for 'ALL THE WORLD'S FUTURES' for the 56th BIENNALE OF CONTEMPORARY ART IN VENICE 2015 has been visited by over 5000 visitors at the Istituto Santa Maria della Pieta. (Pls see pdf documents here)

Salvation 2005, Alliance Francaise, Rotterdam, 2011 Imaaya, Mauritius/

Art:Re:Public, 2006, Museum Leon Dierx, Saint Denis, Reunion Island.

His works are usually site specific and in a correspondence to the cultural or social context, where they are being realised :

ONENESS-WORLD VISION REALITY, Palais des Nations, UNO-Geneva, 1997 UNESCO-Paris, 1998 , Grand Foyer, 50th Anniversary of the signature of the Human Rights Declaration

SKY OVER MY HOUSE University of Geneva, 2001 interdisciplinary performance

TESTAMENT OF THE WIND Muiderpoort Theatre-Amsterdam, 2005, Centre of Contemporary Art - TENT, Rotterdam, 2005

TRANSPOSED HEADS, Interdisciplinary Performance inspired by the 11th century Indian legend and the novel by Thomas Mann, at Hangar D2, Le Port, Reunion Island, 2009

THE JOURNEY Nyau Performance and Movie Project, Malawi, 2007-2009

In recent years, Nikunja created also single channel and multi channel video installations and award winning movie production, projected at major international Movie Festivals as New York International FVF, Cannes IFF, Durban IFF, Namibian IFF:

Mael Project: Comments on Life and Death, 2007 (HD, DV 52min) , NAMA, 2008 (HD, DV, 84 min), CHEIKH ANTA DIOP 2010 (HD, DV videosampling, 90min)

current cinema projects in development:

NIKUNJA 's primary artistic experience is painting in its most radical exponent of the human reflection upon herself: to Nikunja painting and its immediate capacity of the creation of image, since the origins of the human cultural and artistic capacity, is at the basis of the spiritual and philosophical reality of man's reflection on himself inside the universe and the evolution of civilzsations. It is also its primary and most authentic link across generation and age. Nikunja's painting is radically subjective, since his conviction is, that ultimately truth and the Absolute can only be experienced through a totally liberated subjective awareness, beyond any dogmas of religion, convention, social and cultural context.

Vajrayogini I and II 2010, 140 x 220 cm

WELTBILD , 2011, 301 x 410cm, mixed media, resin on plastified cotton stretched on steal frame.

formats 29.7 x 21cm, gouache, 2012

Nikunja's paintings have been shown in many personal and group exhibitions since the early 80ies, pls see detailled biography here:

Kunsthalle Basel, Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Kunsthaus Aarau, Kunsthaus Sankt Gallen, Switzerland, National Museum, Gdansk, Poland, European Cultural Center, Krakow, Poland, European Parliament, Strassburg, France, National Museum, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe, Goethe Institute, Kyoto, Japan, Gallery Inge Baecker, Cologne, Germany, Art Cologne, Germany, UNESCO, Paris, UNO TENT. Contemporary Art Center, Rotterdam, Netherlands, Museum Leon Dierx, Saint Denis, Reunion Island, French Institute, Mauritius, and others

Nikunja has benefitted from a variety of Art Grants: Swiss Art Grant for Young Artists, GrantArtEst, Grant of Republic of Geneva,

and support for artprojects by many local, national and international institutions throughout the years, pls check here.

The context of residencies and work in many countries on all continents support Nikunja to develop further his interrogations and open new aspects to his art research on the human condition (e.g. Poland, 1992 / Zimbabwe, 1995 / Kyoto - Japan, 1996-97 / Rotterdam, 2003-04, Oasis, Le Port, Jeumon, Saint Denis, Reunion Island, 2006-7, Centre Image 2007-2009) and art work as a way to create impulses into the evolution of human civilization.