WORKS

visual archive of inga gerner nielsen

[ingagernernielsen]

A monastery in the dunes falls into the ocean and its nuns moves into deserted welfare institutions around the region. People who want to stay living in the outskirts, far away from the remaining centralised hospital, now begin to inscribe them selves with the nuns.

Limited tickets for the 8th, 9th or 11th of October available at Limfjordsteatret box office: https://limfjordsteatret.dk/events/syner-vakt-i-stoev/

Audience become part of this performance-scenario, by coming to receive a poetic consultation with us. It takes place at in a "nursing lab", a small rehearsal ward in the Nursing School in Thy.

Concept: Inga Gerner Nielsen. Performance and visual art: Ann Mai Røge, Tyra Wigg, Rikke Steen Mapstone, Olivia Kamradt, Stisa Søgaard, Inga Gerner Nielsen. Choreography: Tyra Wigg. Textile Pieces: Stephanie Becquet. Sound: Nils Bourdon. Consultant in Interactive Dramaturgy: Louisa Yaa Aisin. Consultant from the Nursing School: Helle Kronborg Krogsgaard.

Photo and video stills by Claire Chavalley

'Syner Vakt i Støv' is supported by Region Nord and Statens Kunstfond.

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The performance is part of 'In the Mirror of Care Work', a long-term project in collaboration with the Nursing School of UCN in Hjørring and Thisted. Since 2020 we have been exploring different formates for giving insight into our different yet, in many ways, similar field of relational work.

With 'Syner Vakt i Støv' we return to the figure of the nun as a melting point between our two professions. For the nursing students, abbess Hildegard von Bingen is introduced to them, when Helle Kronborg Krogsgaard teaches her first lesson of the History of Nursing. For us in the performance and contemporary art field, Hildegard's monastery archive gives access to a pre-industrial knowledge of herbs, body, spirit and rituals many of us wish to reintroduce into Western societies.

For both nurses and performers the nun may present itself as an ambivalent figure. It opens questions of how we feel about the notion of a calling to care work?

In the performance of 'Syner Vakt i Støv' our working question with the nursing students is what do we want to bring from the fallen monastery?

Read more about the performance, in Tyra Wiggs essayistic reflections from when we first made it in Hjørring 2022: https://pw-magazine.com/2023/more-than-bare-life

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[ingagernernielsen]

Scivias Contemporary

a durational performance and visual art work in the exhibition Visible/Invisible at Kunstbygningen i Vrå, DK

The pieces explores Hildegards von Bingen's iconographic image of song. The headpiece by the end is costom made by Stephanie Becquet for performances 'In the Mirror of Carework' in a dialogue about the orange and blue colours of Hildegaards circles.

Materials from dried sun flower, bricks, chalk, bubble bath bombs, coloured sand, dried moss.

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[ingagernernielsen]

Personale vil indføre dødsritualer på intensivafdeling

I dag findes der ingen manual for, hvordan personalet skal håndtere det, når patienter dør på intensiv. Det skal der nu laves om på.

Poetisk Personalestue at the Intensive Care Unite on DRTV, the Danish National News, June 8th 2025

News story by Josefine Sønderup Rasmussen and Heidi Trillingsgaard

The installation is supported by Jyske Kunstfond and made in collaboration with nurse, Marie Damgaard Winther, as part of the Intensive Care Unites' development project 'Routines and Rituals' at Hjørring Regionshospital.

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[ingagernernielsen]

2025 is open for studio visit

in Tversted, North Jutland

mirror.of.carework__gmail.com

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[ingagernernielsen]

RELATIONER features drawings accompanying questions for a performance exercise made for 1. semester nusing students.

From 2025 my teaching at the Nursing School at Hjørring & Thisted (DK) is supoorted by the Danish Art Counsil´s "Huskunstnerordning"

[ingagernernielsen]

For someone in need. For someone caring. For someone caring for the caregiver.

Poetisk Personalestue, Kunsthal Nord 2024

An installation featuring objects, poetic formulas and thoughts from the project In the Mirror of Care Work. Shown as part of the exhibition of Between Happiness and Dispair, a program initiated by Lasse Fisher for artists about art and mental health.

The poetic formular when ~~~ my breath ~~~ playing in the installation, was made for the participating artist in the program to gather as colleagues and share about involving people in their art workshops.

The project Poetisk Personalestue is supported by Jyske Kunstfond. In 2025 it will manifest as a "pop-up" installation at hospitals, where nurses will be invited to share stories about their intuitive work with rituals.

[ingagernernielsen]

article published in Between Happiness & Dispair, a publication and project about art and mental wellbeing by Lasse Fisher 2024

Art spaces and artist mentioned in the text:

Reading at The Green Corridor, Brussels 2023

Roshan Di Puppo with the piece I (DON'T) CARE, 2023

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[ingagernernielsen]

Excerpt of In the Mirror of Care Work in PW MAGAZINE

whole text by Tyra Wigg based in their experience of interacting with nursing students in my installation Omsorgens Mise-en-Scène @ https://pw-magazine.com/2023/more-than-bare-life

[ingagernernielsen]

In the Mirror of Care Work er en montage af historier, essays, tegninger og poetiske formler, som engagerer dialoger mellem sygeplejesker og performere. I sin helhed udgør bogen et univers for samtaler og billeddannelse af ellers usynlige dimensioner af omsorgsarbejde. Dens indhold opstår i en spejling;

På den ene side står; Sygeplejerskens arbejde med patienten. På den anden; Den interaktive performers arbejde med publikum

Bogen er et udtryk for min kunstneriske praksis, som handler om at gøre det usynlige synligt. Om hvordan vi viser den strøm af udveksling, der sker i mødet mellem mennesker. Og den måde hvorpå vi arbejder dramaturgisk og formsprogligt med dette møde. 

Den indeholder blandt andet tegninger af billedkunstner Marit Benthe Norheim (NO), som hun lavede, mens hun lyttede til fortællinger, som blev delt mellem sygeplejesker og performere under et symposium ved navn Performance & Omsorgsarbejde - et kald eller en profession? Disse fortællinger er frembragt med performative, sanselige øvelser, jeg har udviklet til at at fremkalde minder om interaktioner med patienter og publikum. 

I 2022 udkom det første eksperimentelle oplag i 100 eksemplarer. Bogen blev udarbejdet af undertegnede performance kunstner, Inga Gerner Nielsen (DK) og grafisk bearbejdet af Nadia Marcus (US) fra Tabloid Press, som er et lille kunstner-drevet forlag i Berlin. Den overordnede spejlstruktur er skabt med koreograf, Ar Utke Acs (DK), og var med til at danne fundamentet for det vedvarende samarbejde, jeg initierede med underviser i Sygeplejens Historie, Helle Kronborg Krogsgaard (DK) og sygeplejerskeuddannelsen på University College Nordjylland i Hjørring og Thisted 2019.

Med In the Mirror of Care Work ønsker vi at gøre det muligt for sygeplejesker og performere at få et inderligt indblik i hinandens arbejdsfelter. Arbejdet med bogen som værk er en væsentlig del af at skabe et fælles sprog, hvormed vi nu er begyndt at smelte sammen i nye undervisningerformer på studiet. Bogens billedside viser en performance-installation, som jeg opsatte for de sygeplejerskerske-studerende i deres “færdighelslab” på skolen, - et lille fiktivt, men fuldt funktionelt hospital, de normalt bruger til at øve sig i. Performancen tematiserede nonnen som historisk figur i sygeplejen og indeholdt taktile referencer til Hildegaard von Bingens sygepleje og ritualer. I bogen leger Nadia Marcus videre med ikonografiske visuelle elementer fra performancen. Hermed skabes en grafisk lagring af de forskellige tematiske undersøgelser og spejlingspunkter, vi som performere finder i sygeplejerskens arbejde og historie.

Bogen er bundet sammen af forskellige papirarter, blandt andet med risograph print. Dette, for at vores læser med bogen i sine hænder vil få en fysisk fornemmelse af de forskelligartede teksturer og det indskærpede sanselighed, jeg som kunstner, ønsker at være med til at skænke sygeplejefaget.

[ingagernernielsen]

P1 Kulturen, minute 13.19

A conversation on national radio about the new elective course teachers at the Nursing Edduation at UCN Hjørring/Thisted and I developed.

www.dr.dk/lyd/kulturen/kanperformancekunstnere_sygepleje/minut13.19 (danish)

[ingagernernielsen]

In the Mirror of Care Work

at MadHouse Helsinki, 2 day symposium and workshops, curated with Daniela Pascual

https://www.madhousehelsinki.fi/archive-tekstin-talo/mirrorofcarework

In the Mirror of Care Work researches skills within Nordic interactive performance practices. Using the mirror as a metaphor for visualisation and connection, artist Inga Gerner Nielsen brings into conversation the work of nurses and interactive performers. By inviting in the perspectives of care workers and looking into the history of their profession, Inga engages in discussions about the politics, mythologies and poetics of her own field.

What do we see when we look in the mirror, and when that mirror is a nurse? Do we, as performers – like the nurses were once said to – abide by the feeling of a calling? Does this involve a kind of spiritual care for our audience? And what of the nurses' working conditions should we perhaps try to adopt as (care giving) performers?

Based in Denmark, the project visited Stockholm (MDT) in September 2023 and is coming to Helsinki to meet and exchange with local practitioners. In January 2024, Mad House will host a two-day symposium consisting of a free workshop for artists and a public talk open to everyone interested in creative processes at the crossings of art, culture, and other fields.

at MDT Moderna Dans Teatern Stockholm, 2 day symposium and book launch, curated with Ar Utke Acs

https://mdtsthlm.se/in-the-mirror-of-care-work

"In the Mirror of Care Work" utforskar färdigheter inom nordiska interaktiva performancetraditioner. Projektet använder spegeln som metafor och kunskapsförmedlande instrument, där det på ena sidan finns verk av interaktiva performancekonstnärer och på den andra sidan det arbete som utförs av sjuksköterskor. Genom att inkludera omsorgsarbetares perspektiv och syna deras arbetes historiska bakgrund, initierar vi dialog kring de politiska, mytologiska och poetiska aspekterna av vårt eget. Är vi som performancekonstnärer – såsom sjuksköterskor en gång sägs ha varit – drivna av känslan av ett kall? Inbegriper detta en form av andlig omsorg om vår publik? Vad skulle det betyda för det interaktiva performancefältet om vi i vårt arbete, likt sjuksköterskor, skulle börja betraktas som utövare av ett yrke i egen rätt?

Detta två-dagars symposium välkomnar yrkesverksamma utövare inom performance- och omsorgsarbetesfälten att ta del av projektets berättarmetoder, performativa intervjuer, uppläsningar av texter ur projektets publikation, och poetiska scores för kollektiv reflektion.

"In the Mirror of Care Work" är initierat av performancekonstnären Inga Gerner Nielsen tillsammans med ett kunskapsproducerande team som består av koreografen Ar Utke Acs och förläggaren Nat Marcus.

Medverkande, performance-symposium

Initiativtagare: Inga Gerner Nielsen

Performance-symposium producerat av: Ar Utke Ács och Inga Gerner Nielsen.

Utvecklat i samarbete med följande utövare: Josefina Björk, Noah Hellwig, Majula Drammeh.

Utvecklat i samarbete med följande sjukvårdslektorer: Helle Kronborg Krogsgaard och Sanne Holm (UCN Hjørring).

Boksläpp i samarbete med Izabella Borzecka (PAM) och Reading edge-biblioteket.

The symposiums are kindly supported by Nordisk Kulturfond.

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[ingagernernielsen]

T h i s I n s t i t u t e

in 'I GIVE YOU MY BLUE WORDS (almost public exercises)' by Gilles Hellesman with Niels Poiz

Blue Bench Sessions, Bizet Bizarre, Anderlecht, Brussels 2023

Moving to Brussels from the west coast of Denmark, Inga Gerner Nielsen quickly felt the urge to institute herself as one amongst the myriads of institutions in the city. T h i s I n s t i t u t e constitutes the sensual mode of her thinking. A solitary space which may open at any place and at any time. However, specific tunes, such as Chris Isaak’s Wicked Games, as well as certain constellations of colours and textures are sure to crack it open. With @gilleshe she shares a constant love for BLUE. In an omen to the inauguration of I give you my blue word(s), Inga opened T h i s I n s t i t u t e to contemplate on the possibility of solitary, luxurious and exclusive ways of engaging with inclusive public spaces. During her performance she invited to whisper text or stories to T h i s I n s t i t u t e and, in return, hear fragments of its inner thoughts.

Photo: Dániel Fülöp

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[ingagernernielsen]

T h i s I n s t i t u t e

within the exhibition FARVEAFFEKT, Kunstbygningen i Vrå 2023

"Porøst, men rungende dybt. En indre tilstand, som indtræder gennem sanserne og hurtigt opløser sig igen. Det er den sanselige tone i hendes tænkning.  Inga bevæger sig langsomt rundt i udstillingen og under søger farverne og deres affekt. I en kontemplation, som udtrykkes gennem skulpturel bevægelse og sporadiske poetiske samtaler. Måske T h i s I n s t i t u t e også åbner sig i det enkelte publikum, som lader sig invitere ind i det.

Kunstbygningen i Vrå – Engelundsamlingen har inviteret performancekunstneren Inga Gerner Nielsen ind i både stedet som institution, og i udstillingen FARVEAFFEKT. Begge dele er genstand for Inga Gerner Nielsens blik og berøring gennem to dages forløb med den performative undersøgelse T h i s I n s t i t u t e. ”

Photo: Jakub Ivancik

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[ingagernernielsen]

A.PASS end-presentation, 29th-39th of september, Meyboom, Brussels

The presentation was part of DEMOLITION DAMAGE DEVIATION DESIRE, a public presentation which marks the end of the trajectory at a.pass and invites the researchers to share their modes of doing, seeing and making artist research public after following the year-long postgraduate program. amy pickles (UK) is an artist and educator working on colonial infrastructures embedded within everyday technologies. She curated and organised, with Chloë Janssens and Túlio Rosa, a gathering titled On Coloniality. Gary Farrelly (IE) is a visual artist researching on infrastructure, bureaucracy and the architectures of power. A big part of his work is in collaboration with German artist Chris Dreier with the ongoing project Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence. Jimena Pérez Salerno (AR) is a choreographer and dancer researching on the concept of expanded choreography as a critical modality for political awareness reflecting on linear time and productive behavior. Inga Gerner Nielsen (DK) is a performing artist with a background in sociology, researching immersive performance as an interstice of poetry and institutional critique.

With singular questions, processes and approaches, the four researches intersect and expand concerns in Demolition, Damage, Deviation, Desire by bridging intimacy and politics in very different ways. Their practices extend from the lecture performance to performative installation, drawing, crossing ritual making and never ending warmups, to research, share and exchange – together with the audience – questions that are embedded in our everyday lives.

The research of these four artists addresse architecture and administration with their conditionings and protocols; the perpetuation of colonial governance through digital infrastructures and our dependency on them; immersive institutional rational authority and the amazing potential of time to inherit, transform, conduct change and resilience.

The End-Presentations at a.pass are on themselves a study on curatorial practice, performativity and making public. By being together, these performative situations will shine attention to the context and environment they are in, their relationship with audiences, the materialities that are involved being them visible or invisible and what matters in these circumstances.

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T h i s  I n s t i t u t e

At a.pass my artistic research came to be conjured through T h i s  I n s t i t u t e ; a structure by which to constitute the sensual mode of my thinking. The past year I have been looking intensely into ահąէ it is a spacious feeling – where an imaginary world of analysis starts appearing through the objects and textures at hand, հօա it opens as a kind of summoning and closes when I am called into presence by matters of everyday life  and  ահվ it feels so urgent for me to institutionalize my artistic research as affect, as symptom, as dream.

Moving to Brussels from Denmark I lost the sociological overview of my environment. Normally, my artistic work unfolds as sitespecifc intervention in a concrete place, in the academic field or in an institutional setting, which I have carefully sensed in order to know how to highlight its features and make the invisible visible, often through an aesthetic and ideological juxtaposition. My performance series My Protestant Origins and Catholic Fantasies combines my background in Sociology with my artistic work by making performance installations which open up a maximalist, celestial relation to space and objects in the otherwise secular rule of minimalist Danish design. Now, in the myriad of styles and institutions that make up Brussels, I didn’t know what to juxtapose and how to intervene. And after quite some confusion, this lack of clarity started to feel good. It granted me permission to just gaze at my own gaze. In many of my previous works I had been exploring with performers how the gaze affects or choreographs the body, and now, with half-closed eyes I started to practice an intense mode of subjectivation.

Inside T h i s  I n s t i t u t e I researched how to fall into a medieval perception of space/time; a mode of being in and knowing the world, I fantasize to be a remaining counterweight to the renaissance’s linear perspective once invented by the architect. I practiced a bodily felt sense of my close surroundings as an emotional imaginary landscape, where the distinction between the inner and outer world falls away. At the End Presentation I tried to open up T h i s  I n s t i t u t e to my community of artistic researchers and people interested in the question of how to build portals for other modes of thinking? And why might we need the institution to uphold and preserve them?

Photo: Karolien Chromiak

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[ingagernernielsen]

THiS INSTiTUTE; a room of ones own; a mountain slope

FLYKTIG/ FUGITIVE- is an off-grid assembly of artistic practices convening in Vestre Slidre, Norway between 6 and 13 August 2022. The project unfolds in two stages, a residency and a public presentation program. Six artists and artist duos  have been invited to experiment with ways of embedding performance and temporary installation works in the rugged, rural landscapes around the Slidrefjord. Stations in the program include, a mountain, a tiny island, a forest, a meadow, a pedestrian tunnel, and a sullen office block overlooking the fjord. The initiative aims to facilitate possibilities for crosspollination and collaboration between the participating artists. FLYKTIG/ FUGITIVE's primary objective is to encourage encounters between experimental contemporary art and the local community in a spirit of affirmative inquiry and mutual exchange.

Participants: Nina Hynes, Inga Gerner Nielsen, Kvae & Bark (Øyvind Novak Jenssen & Karoline Sætre), Joshua Goode, Office for Joint Administrative Intelligence (Chris Dreier & Gary Farrelly).

Flyktig / Fugitive is a collaboration between Gary Farrelly and Anne-Marte Før. The project is supported by Norsk Kulturråd og Innlandet Fylkeskommune

Photo: Anne-Marte Før.

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[ingagernernielsen]

ON AND OFF THE CLOCK @ SB34-The Pool

On and Off the Clock is a duo exhibition by the artists Inga Gerner Nielsen (lives and works between the West Coast of Denmark and Brussels) and Liselore Vandeput (lives and works in Brussels). Conceived as a dialogue between "This Institute", founded by the former, and "The Artist Travel Agency", imagined by the latter, the project takes the form of a set where performative actions and collective discussions about the intimate and political conditions that determine the economy of artistic practices take place.

With the supports of Fédération Wallonie-Bruxelles and Région Bruxelles-Capitale/Image de Bruxelles

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[ingagernernielsen]

𝒪𝓃𝓁𝓎 𝒽𝑒𝓇𝑒 𝓉𝑜 𝒶𝒹𝑜𝓇𝑒  

- et værk skabt i tre dele. Først del fandt sted i foråret hos Landlyst Plantecenter i Hjørring, hvor Inga Gerner Nielsen interviewede besøgende haveejere om deres indkøb, overvejelser og drømme for den kommende havesæson. Disse interviews dannede grundlag for en koreografisk undersøgelse med danseren Nathaniel Moore af fem forskellige typer interaktioner med planten. Performancen blev filmet af visuel kunstner Louise Ørsted Jensen og vises nu  som videoværk på Vendsyssel Kunstmuseum med talk den 3. november kl. 19.00 - 20.30.

Projektet er kurateret af Skal Contemporary 

Videoer @ researchcatalogue 

Læs mere @idoart.dk 

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