Since 2009 Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles have been working together as a collective, based in Berlin. Their works interfere in social infrastructures through controversial performances that challenge institutions. The collective pursues a critical re-evaluation of actual cultural commons, the power of representation through material objects of other cultures, their digital image as well as the concepts of heritage and identity politics.

Nora Al-Badri and Jan Nikolai Nelles’ works have been on display in various exhibitions and institutions such as the 4th Thessaloniki Biennale of Contemporary Art, 2013; the Victoria & Albert Museum, Applied Arts Pavilion at La Biennale di Venezia, 2016; and the 3rd Design Biennial, curated by Anselm Franke, Istanbul, 2016. Their works have received grants from several institutions like Haus der Kulturen der Welt (HKW), Goethe-Institut, Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen (IfA), the German Federal Foreign Office and the European Cultural Foundation (ECF).

Nora Al-Badri (b. 1984, Germany) is a multi-disciplinary artist with a German-Iraqi background. Her practice incorporates interventions and different mediums such as sculpture and installation, photography and film. She studied political sciences at Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt/Main and visual communications at Offenbach University of Art and Design.

Jan Nikolai Nelles (b. 1980, Germany) is a multi-disciplinary artist. His artistic practice oscillates between different fields such as visual and media art, documentary film-making and cultural activism. He graduated from Offenbach University of Art and Design in 2011. In the past he founded an independent project space in Frankfurt/Main, Germany, and co-founded a photography magazine.