Looking for traces, problems and solutions with Nadia Kaabi-Linke
It is raining cats and dogs when we visit Nadia Kaabi-Linke in her studio, and on the third floor of the Kreuzberg rear building we first have to dry off. Nadia, who was born in Tunis, surprises us by speaking fluent Russian. For us, a class of children who have fled Ukraine, this is a blessing. Finally we can ask all our questions!
Nadia introduces us to her husband Timo, the two form a collective and work together on many works. Their son is also there, who is our age. His name Mika-Akim can be pronounced forwards and backwards. Mika-Akim will make a very special appearance later at Nadia's presentation of her works
We ask Nadia and Timo lots of questions, talk about children and dogs (she'd like to have one, but since they live half in Berlin and half in Kiev, that's difficult) and then about why they make art and how. Mostly, Timo says, we ask each other questions and think about them – not with words, but with art. Nadia explains that for her, it's always about things she doesn't understand, because engaging with them opens discourse and the mind.impressions and then lets them flow into the pictures. When they lived entirely in Berlin (Stella studied here and now commutes between Berlin and Basel), many urban structures moved into her paintings; now they live more in the countryside, which is why you can discover more nature and animals. (Stella’s favorite animals, by the way, are butterflies, rabbits and birds).
And how do all the body parts come about? Before painting, Stella consciously concentrates on their body sensation, close their eyes and pays attention to how their sense of body and space changes. This exercise is called body scan. Afterwards, Stella often draws outlines of their body and its parts on the paper or fabric.For example, the installation Remont, which was shown in Kiev in 2019. In Ukraine, many things do not work, there are endless construction sites. In Remont, Nadia recreated the repair of cobblestones. She has spread the stones loosely on the floor as a metaphor for instability and insecurity, and hung the edgings of the stones on the wall. So she separated what really belongs together: the problem (the loose cobbles) and its solution (the edging that gives the stones support). Sometimes, she says, it's better to look at a problem and its solution separately, and it's not always about finding a final solution at any cost.
Nadia and Timo observe that in the various countries we deal with problems differently. In Germany, roads are built very sturdily and repaired solidly; it is important to us that everything we do lasts a long time. In Ukraine, problems are often solved quickly and superficially, something is repaired, but in such a way that it breaks down again after a short time. But this is not necessarily worse. On the contrary, in Ukraine people are used to finding quick, uncomplicated solutions, they are resourceful. This was also evident during the Corona pandemic and the war: All of a sudden, there is fast Internet and a quick defense against the attack from Russia. In Germany, everyone panics, and nothing happens for a long time because we're afraid to do anything without already knowing for sure whether we're working on the best, most stable of all solutions.
When we ask her how much time she devotes to art, she says: All the time! But, of course, she doesn't stand in her studio from morning to night painting or gluing or tinkering. Most of the time, she says, a work of art occupies her mind.
It starts with an idea, which she then pursues. Places and their history(s) particularly interest the artist. When she interviews people about a place, they tell stories she never expected and Nadia tries to collect their traces. For this she uses different techniques and materials, for example charcoal or dust. We even get to try this out for ourselves, using wax and ink to transfer the surface texture of an old wooden stool onto tissue paper. I wonder how many feet stood on the rungs, whose traces we now see on the paper?
And then Nadia shows us a big picture from an exhibition of her work that turns everything upside down a bit. Because she and her husband as a collective didn't paint the picture. But they made art out of it. We see red colored pencil, an abstract drawing. Nadia's son Mika-Akim drew it when he was two years old. But how did they make art out of it, and why? Nadia says children are a role model for her because they have an openness of heart, are curious, full of life. For adults, she says, it is important to find back to these strengths, which sometimes get lost in the course of life. Therefore, in every work she tries to open up a new, unknown view of something.
Pale Geranium Lake and Canvas (Remastered), 2018 – Pen and crayon on paper on canvas and acrylic, 275 × 195 cm © Courtesy: Nadia Kaabi-Linke, Photo: Mustafa Aboobacker 2018
That's why they enlarged the children's drawing very much and copied it onto a canvas. If you look more closely, you suddenly discover details: on the structure of a line that Mika-Akim has painted, whole worlds appear. Also, the texture of the canvas shines through the paint and thus becomes visible. One of us first sees a gorilla in the painting, then, as she gets closer, people on a planet. Then another remembers that her friend painted a hand, and then she saw the painting herself and asked, "Is that a dinosaur?" The others saw all kinds of things in the drawing, too – except a hand!
And that fits with Nadia's work with children's drawing. She plays with the perception of art: no one knows it's a picture of her two-year-old son. And we never know what others see in a work – that's quite fascinating.