Ophelia
2017 / 2018
Installation, 500 x 800 270 cm (196.9 x 315 x 106,3 in) (variable), mixed media
Performance, 25 min, mixed media
New York, San Francisco,
OPHELIA is a performance and video installation that reinterprets Shakespeare’s character as the embodiment of human subjectivity in the context of climate change and gender inequality. During the performance, Marcin delivers a lecture on Ophelia, the destruction of the biosphere and the history of female hysteria, linking the silence of nature with the oppression of women. Clad in a white dress and breathing mask, she climbs into an aquarium, floating underwater as she recites Daniil Kharms’ The Werld (1939), with the distorted words and air bubbles transmitted through hydrophones and surrounding speakers.
In the exhibition, this setup transforms as the steel frame now supports video monitors displaying the artist’s image floating in blue water, with her recitation of The Werld playing in the background. This reimagining transports Ophelia into the 21st century, integrating elements from Millais’ iconic painting (1852-3) as background scenery, while the river transforms into the architecture of the water tank and monitors. This modern, isolated Ophelia, whose livelihood depends on artificial respiration, muses on the preciousness of life and nature, our dependence on technology, and the vulnerability of the individual in the face of the powerful responses of nature.
In the exhibition, this arrangement is transformed as the steel frame supports video monitors on which the artist’s image floats in the blue water while her recitation of The Werld plays in the background. Both reinterpretations bring Ophelia into the 21st century by incorporating elements from Millais’ iconic painting (1852-3) as a backdrop, while the river is transformed into the installation. This modern, isolated Ophelia, whose livelihood depends on artificial respiration, muses on the preciousness of life and nature, our dependence on technology and the vulnerability of the individual in the face of nature’s powerful response.
Marcin’s 21st-century Ophelia becomes an icon of Ophelia memes, democratizing the figure into broader dimensions. Through historical and cultural references—from Millais’ painting to Koons’ Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (1985)—this work connects the devastation of the environment with gender issues, blending art, technology, and history to comment on the democratizing power of the meme.
First unveiled as a video sculpture at Art CONTEXT Miami’s VIP Lounge during Art Basel Miami Beach 2017, OPHELIA was highlighted both in Artnet’s Everything You Need to Know About All 23 Artfairs at Art Basel Miami Beach and Hyperallergic’s Your Concise Guide Miami Art Week 2017. Following its debut, the performance premiered at Fridman Gallery in New York and was presented at the Minnesota Street Project in San Francisco with the support of the Goethe Institute, garnering enthusiastic reception as noted in articles like Cultured Magazine Nadja Verena Marcin’s Ophelia Goes on a World Tour and San Francisco Chronicle Ophelia returns after 300 years with new message.
The three-year traveling exhibition continued with a presentation at Moltkerei Werkstatt e.V. in Cologne as part of DC Open, supported by the Kulturamt of Cologne, before being exhibited as a video installation at Nube Gallery in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, with backing from the Simón I. Patiño Foundation. In February 2019, it marked its first solo museum show at SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen, near Stuttgart, before traveling to the group show Staring at the Sun during the Ecofutures Festival in London. From September 2019 to January 2020, OPHELIA featured in a second institutional solo show at Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken.
Technical Details:
Installation – Monitor box, stainless steel frame, 152.4 x 190.5 x 60.96 cm; 4 HD monitors, PC, graphics card; wallpaper, 600 x 525 cm; red carpet, 8 m; 1 ladder, 2 step stools; 2 chalkboards, 2 easels, chalk
Performance – Artist, installation, water tank, white dress, bikini, weights, diving mask, respirator, oxygen tank
Exhibitions:
OPHELIA, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Saarbrücken, 2019/2020 (solo)
OPHELIA, SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen, Sindelfingen, 2019 (solo)
Every Woman Biennial, La MaMa Galleria, New York, 2019
Come On In, The Water’s Fine, ARTnews, W Hotel, Miami, 2019
Staring at the Sun, Mile EndArt Pavilion, London, 2019
Re: INSITU, The Boiler, Brooklyn, 2019
OPHELIA’S DOMAIN, Nube Gallery, Santa Cruz, 2018 (solo)
OPHELIA’S CEREMONY, Moltkerei e.V. Werkstatt, DC Open, Cologne, 2018 (solo)
OPHELIA, Minnesota Street Project, San Francisco, 2018 (solo)
Test Bed, Parsons – New School, Aronson Gallery, New York, 2018
Dream Machines, Parsons – New School, Kellen Auditorium, 2018 (screening)
OPHELIA, CONTEXT Art Miami, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, Miami, 2017 (solo)
Workshops:
Workshop OPHELIA PIY (Perform It Yourself) Centro Cultural Simón I. Patiño, Santa Cruz, 2018
Master Class Nadja Verena Marcin – How to Make a Performance, Faculty of Arts, Universidad Autónoma Gabriel René Moreno, Santa Cruz, 2018
Lectures:
Berliner Festspiele at Gropius Bau, for Down to Earth, as part of Avtonomi Akadimia, Berlin, 2020
Queen Mary University of London, Queer Feminist Ecocriticism in Live Art and Visual Cultures International Conference, London, 2019
CAA Annual Conference, Like a Hurricane’: John Everett Millais’ Ophelia (1852), Nadja Verena Marcin’s OPHELIA (2017/19), and the Hysteria of Nature, in Climate Change and British Art, by Prof. Kimberly Rhodes and Nadja Verena Marcin, Hilton, New York, 2019
CAA Annual Conference, Re-storying the Female Body, in Contested Site: The Female Body in Contemporary Art, by Susan Silas and Nadja Verena Marcin, Hilton, New York, 2019
Lectures:
Minnesota Street Project, Panel Discussion OPHELIA: Rebel Meme to Systems of Power & Oppression, with Amy Kisch, Dena Beard, Dorka Keehn and Nadja Verena Marcin, San Francisco, 2018
Moltkerei e.V. Werkstatt, DC Open, Discussion Round with Nadja Verena Marcin, Tim Mrosek, Angela Theisen, Cologne, 2018
Editions:
Collections:
SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen, Schaufler Foundation
Kunststiftung Sparkasse UnnaKamen, Unna
Private collections in Annecy, Berlin, Brooklyn, Chapel Hill, Dothan, Frankfurt, Greensboro, Köln, Lyon, New Jersey, New York, San Francisco
Catalogs:
Nadja Verena Marcin – Ophelia, by Uwe Rüth, Kimberly Rhodes, Susan Silas, Liam Gillick, and Kathy Battista. Sandstein, Dresden, 2019
Interviews:
Andreas Langen, Ophelia-Performance – Nadja Verena Marcin feiert die rebellische Frau in Sindelfingen, SWR Radio, Stuttgart, 8 Feb 2019.
Jana Gührer, Kunst im Aquarium? – Die Performance Ophelia im Schauwerk Sindelfingen, in: Kunscht!, SWR Television, Stuttgart, 2 Feb 2019.
Nora Höglinger, Wie ein Schwarm Bienen um den Wassertank – Über das Abtauchen, Umweltschutz und das Wesen der Performancekunst, ARTinWORDS, Vienna, 17 Oct 2018.
Mascha Schlubach, OPHELIA | Die Verletzlichkeit der Welt, barton mag, Berlin, 3 Sep 2018.
Priscilla Son, Conversations | Nadja Verena Marcin’s OPHELIA World Tour, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York, 24 May 2018.
Press:
Melena Ryzik, An Art Show for Hundreds of Women. And That’s Just the Artists., New York Times, New York, 16 May 2019.
Sarah Cascone, The Every Woman Biennial Is a Supportive, Salon-Style Celebration of the ‘Divine Feminine’, artnet News,New York, 24 May 2019
Künstlerischer Tauchgang der Ophelia – Performance im Schauwerk in Sindelfingen, by Kat, Stuttgarter Zeitung/ Stuttgarter Nachrichten, Stuttgart, 10 Feb 2019
Press:
Thomas Volkmann, Taucherbrille und Kaktus- schwert – Nadja Verena Marcin beschäftigt sich mit Frauenbildern / Live-Performance im Schauwerk, Sindelfinger Zeitung/ Böblinger Zeitung, Sindelfingen, 9 Feb 2019
Charles Desmarais, Ophelia returns after 400 years with new message, San Francisco Chronicle/ SF Gate/ Murack.com/ USA, Breaking News, San Francisco, 27 Mar 2018
Anna Volpicelli, Nadja Verena Marcin’s Ophelia goes on a World Tour, Cultured Magazine, New York, 11 Mar 2018.
Sarah Cascone, Everything You need to Know about all 23 Artfairs at Art Basel Miami Beach, artnet News, New York, 5 Dec 2017.
Monica Uszerowicz, Your Concise Guide to Art Basel Miami 2017, Hyperallergic, New York, 4 Dec 2017.
Credits:
OPHELIA is an installation, performance, and video-sculpture by Nadja Verena Marcin with contributions from:
Architectural Design: Fernando Schrupp Rivero; Catalog Editing: Helene Remmel, Sibylle Marcin; Catalog Images: Martha Rosler, United Archives; Cinematography: Marque DeWinter; Costume Design: Keyana Leslie; Curators: Barbara Bergmann, Giulia Casalini, Isabel Collazos, Diana Georgiou, Andrea Jahn, Christian Merscheid, Julian Navarro, Rodrigo Rada, Angela Theisen; Galleries: AKArt, 532 Gallery Thomas Jaeckel, Fridman Gallery, Nube Gallery; Gallerists: Iliya Fridman, Christine Jaeckel, Thomas Jaeckel, Rachel Schwartz; Grant Editing: NYFA/ Madeleine Cutrona; Mentoring: Jenny Korns, Martha Wilson; Photography: Juliane Herrmann, Frank Kleinbach, Marie Koehler, Martin Miroschnitschenko, Thomas Sparks, Chris Waggoner; Producers: Amy Kisch (US), Uwe Rüth (DE); Residency SF: Jean Chadbourne; Shipping: Juraj Marcin; Support: Isabel Marcin, Susanne Marcin, Stefan Marcin, Deborah Rappaport, Andy Rappaport, Christiane Schaufler-Münch, Cora von Pape
Sponsors:
This project was supported by the Franklin Furnace Fund supported by Jerome Foundation, the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council, Goethe Institut San Francisco, Puffin Foundation, Kulturamt der Stadt Köln, Centro Cultural Simón I. Patiño Santa Cruz, Nube Gallery, SCHAUWERK Sindelfingen, Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Arts Council England, British Association for American Studies, and a Kickstarter Campaign.