BIOGRAPHY
Marnix de Nijs (NL)
Marnix de Nijs (1970) is a Rotterdam based installation artist. Graduated as a sculptor in 1992, he focused his early career on sculpture, public space and architecture. Since the mid 90's, he has been a pioneer in researching the experimental use of media and technologies in Art. Impelled by the idea that technology acts as a driving force behind cultural change and therefore capable of generating new experiences where societal habits and communication are rethought, his work thrives on the creative possibilities offered by new media, while critically examining their impact on contemporary society and human perception.
The interface between the body and technology forms an important basis for De Nijs’s work. Technology must literally merge, become absorbed into the body so that it becomes a co-determiner of perception. And here perception not only refers to how external stimuli are interpreted by the five senses, but also the feelings that come from within the body itself, the information that is derived from one’s own muscles and nerves (the technical term being proprioception). Because De Nijs’s work often involves the entire body of the observer, they therefore become less of an observer and more of a participator; someone who experiences the work. The techniques employed in the construction of his work mediate this experience.
One of the characteristics of a technological culture is that change is constant. Everyone who wants to keep pace is continually required to adjust; which does not happen automatically and can, in time lead to cultural-pathological anomalies. In this way, travelers had to get used to the first trains and airplanes. The introduction of such travel technology initially led to disorientation and required a new outlook. It is pre-eminently these cultural processes that are given artistic form by Marnix de Nijs.
De Nijs' works have been widely exhibited at international art institutes, museums and festivals. He won the Art Future Award (Taipei 2000) and received honourly mentions at the Transmediale award ( Berlin 2000), the Vida 5.0 award (Madrid 2002), and Prix Ars Electronica ( Linz 2013, 2005 & 2001). In 2005, he collected the prestigious Dutch Witteveen & Bos Art and Technology Price 2005, for his entire oeuvre.