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 and The weight of invisible pain). In 2013/14 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. 

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In 2020 Nada initiated the Monthly Collective Research Sessions, a platform for artists from different disciplines to come together and share urgent concerns and current preoccupations. Today, a semi-stable collective has formed consisting of dramaturges, performance makers, theatre and dance practitioners, visual artists and a graphic designer. They meet once a month to share practices, questions and desires. The sessions are an experimental, hands-on platform of exchange that is adaptable to transform according to the needs of the members of the collective.

 

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). 

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Nada is currently focusing on research processes that merge writing, fieldwork and performative practices. She also continues Merging Traffic, an ongoing writing practice together with Mark Etchells.

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