Zero Gravity
Video/Performance – 2013
HD Video, 2.33 min
In Zero Gravity (2013) Marcin floats in the space of a jet over Tampa Bay in Florida. In a black jumpsuit with a white collar, representing a space organization like an astronaut with patches of the American and German flags, she daringly flies under the roof of the interior, quoting fragments from Nietzsche’s text God is dead (1882).
The tale of The Mad Man (1882) remains a widely known atheism manifesto. Ironically, Marcin quotes the text in this moment where the consequences of lost religious belief have become apparent. The weightiness and emotionality of the text meet a voice enlightened by endorphins – as a physical reaction to the weightlessness in which she experiences an explosion of feelings of happiness.
The artist alludes to the forlornness of humanity in a period of innumerable possibilities of consumption, in which a short feeling of happiness often takes the place of deeper contentment, and a long-term orientation is lacking. For Marcin, the gravity of this text contradicts weightlessness – physical or menta – as a human symptomatology. Metaphorically and figuratively Marcin becomes a crash test dummy in a heavenly situation and tries to give impulses for the rediscovery of our inner voice, deeper human needs and desires.
EXHIBITIONS
S: Solo Exhibition | G: Group Exhibition | Sc: Screening
POST EDEN, Art Claims Impulse, Berlin, 2025 (G)
Glitch: Ontological Exhaustions & System Failures, Spazju Kreattiv, Malta, 2025 (G)
Zero Tolerance, Spor Klübü, Berlin, 2023 (G)
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Kunstenplatform WARP, Sint-Niklaas, 2022 (G)
Down to Earth as a part of Avtonomi Akadimia, Berliner Festspiele at Gropius Bau, Berlin, 2020 (G)
24th Biennial of Humor and Satire, House of Humor and Satire, Gabrovo, 2019 (G)
Aesthetica Art Prize, York Art Gallery, York, 2017 (G)
YES: Rachelle Beaudoin / Nadja Verena Marcin, Microscope Gallery, New York, 2017 (Sc)
Space Odyssey – Beyond Material Confinements, Radiator Gallery, Brooklyn, 2017 (G)
Mythic Age, aCinema, Milwaukee, 2017 (Sc)
EFA’s 25th Anniversary Online Art Auction and Exhibition Reception, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, New York, 2017 (G)
Deep Inside – 5th Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Trekhgornaya Manufactory, Moscow, 2016 (G)
Video Shop, NADA Art Fair / Kunstraum LLC, New York, 2016 (G)
01111010 (…), Esther Donatz as part of Kino der Kunst, Munich, 2015 (S)
Call of the Wild: Pioneers, Rebels and Heroines, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, 2015 (G)
DEW21 Kunstpreis, Museum für Kunst- und Kulturgeschichte, Dortmund, 2014 (G)
EXHIBITIONS
Momenta Art Spring Benefit, Momenta Art, New York, 2014 (G)
Zero Gravity, Kunstverein Unna, Unna, 2014 (S)
Spring Show, 532 Thomas Jaeckel Gallery, New York, 2013 (S)
Coup de Ville 2013, Sint-Niklaas, 2013 (G)
LECTURES
Masterclass – Nadja Verena Marcin, masterclass and Q&A, Festival Internacional Denis Stoklos de Solo Performance, Irati, 2022
Masterclass – Performance, fotografia e cinema: O processo criativo de Nadja Marcin, masterclass and Q&A, Cabíria Festival & Prêmio de Roteiro, Rio de Janeiro, 2020
CATALOGS
Verena Voigt, Glitch: Ontological Exhaustions & System Failures, Potsdam: Emblematic Pi*$©h, 2025.
Margarita Dorovska, Marilena Nardi, Tchavdar Nikolov, Martin Rowson, Berta Sichel, Anton Staykov and Tanya Hristova, 24. Gabrovo Biennial of Humor and Satire in Art – Dimensions of Publicness, Sofia: Museum House of Humor and Satire, 2019. 178–179.
Uwe Rüth, Kimberly Rhodes, Susan Silas, Liam Gillick, and Kathy Battista, Nadja Verena Marcin – Ophelia, Dresden: Sandstein, 2019.
Olivier Richon, Dr Rebekka Kill, Alistair Payne and Sophia Kosmaoglou, Future Now – 100 Contemporary Artists From The Aesthetica Art Prize, New York: Aesthetica Magazine Ltd, 2017. 180–181.
CATALOGS
Nadim Samman, Elvia Wilk and Andrey Shental, Deep Inside, Moscow: Pareto-Print, 32-35, 191. 2016.
John A. Parks, Universal Principles Of Art, Beverly: Rockport Publishers, 2015. 126-127.
Christine Veugen, Coup de Ville – Attracted by another level, Gent/Sint-Niklaas: Borgerhoff & Lamberigts/WARP/participating artists, 2013. 140–145.
PRESS
Verena Voigt: “Exhibition reflects on today’s technology-dependent society“, Times of Malta, 16 Mar 2025.
Sarah Corona, “L’arte senza Gravita”, Wallstreet International Magazine, New York, Dec 2013.
CREDITS
Camera: Violetta D’Agata; Cut: Mike Lowther; Film Editor: Matz Müller; Concept, Art Director & Performance: Nadja Verena Marcin
SPONSORS
The project is made possible by WARP – Contemporary Arts Platform, Sint-Niklaas and Aurora Aerospace, Tampa.
PRIZE
Long listed for Aesthetica Art Prize, New York, 2017