Fischer & el Sani’s artistic practice is inspired by situationist and interventionist methods. They use performative, process-oriented strategies and develop their art projects in dialogue with local communities. Their latest project Cloud Alchemy – Art, Activism and Splitting Communities is posing key questions in relation to climate change and its potential to split society.

Die Alchemie der Wolken – Art, Activism and Splitting Communites, 2021

6 channel video installation,
Colour, Sound, Duration variable,
Timber structure
Co-produced by LWL-Museum für Kunst und Kultur
Funded by Ministerium für Kultur und Wissenschaft des Landes NRW
Courtesy the artists

Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani frequently develop their video projects in workshops and by employing performative scenes with actresses and actors. For the Cloud Alchemy project, the artists have staged a simulation game in the rainwater collection basin at Berlin’s abandoned Tempelhof Airport. Like the venue itself, the protagonists find themselves in a transitional situation. Referring to a text by Japanese author Toshiki Okada, a glowing cloud hovering over a village becomes the catalyst for an ominous social divide. This cloud forces people to decide whether they want to try radically new ways of living and types of housing and drastically curtail their consumption, or whether everything should remain as it is. The natural phenomenon is illustrative of a global problem, and represents differences and tensions. Fischer & el Sani pose key questions about the non-historical occurrence of division that paralyses and undermines societies around the world: Do we feel called to immediate action? Or do we want to limit our perception to one of a mere natural phenomenon and not draw any consequences?

Nina Fischer & Maroan el Sani, artists, film makers, living in Berlin, since 1995 they work as a duo.