Biography

Longtime collaborators Nina Fischer and Maroan el Sani reflect on the trajectory of modernity as well as the fraught relationship between contemporary society and the utopian projects that have driven collective understandings of time, history and progress. Through interventional and situationist art practice, the Berlin-based artists and filmmakers consider their work a permanent pursuit of and negotiation with the passage of time and the transitions of history. Often casting urban spaces as the protagonists of their films, the duo investigates collective memory and perceptions of social and political turmoil through the lens of transitory public spaces and the built environment.
Fischer and el Sani’s solo exhibitions include: Haus am Waldsee, Berlin (2021); Freedom of Movement, MAXXI – Museum of 21st Century Arts, Rome (2017); K21 – Kunstsammlung Nordrhein Westfalen, Düsseldorf (2016); Spirits closing their eyes, Galerie Eigen+Art, Leipzig (2014); Museu de Arte Moderna Aloisio Magalhães (MAMAM), Recife, Brazil (2013); Berlinische Galerie – Museum für Moderne Kunst, Berlin (2012); Museum of Contemporary Art, Hiroshima (2010); Stedelijk Museum Bureau Amsterdam (2007); Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media, Japan (2005); Aura Research, Tokyo Metropolitan Museum of Photography (1998); among others.
Group exhibitions include State and Nature, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (2021); The Body and the City, Goethe-Institute Hong Kong (2021); Manifesta 13, Marseille (2020); VIDEONALE.17 – Festival for video and time-based arts, Kunstmuseum Bonn (2019); 2050 – A brief history of the future, Royal Museum of Fine Arts, Brussels (2015); Media City Seoul Biennale (2012, 2014); Aichi Triennale, Nagoya, Japan (2013); Gwangju Biennale (1995, 2002, 2008); Istanbul Biennial (2007); Sydney Biennale (2002); Manifesta 4 (2002); and 1st Liverpool Biennial of Contemporary Art (1999); among others.
Their film Freedom of Movement—a re-enactment of marathon runner Abebe Bikila’s first African Olympic gold medal win in Rome in 1960—received the Tiger Short award at the International Film Festival Rotterdam (2019).

They have participated in artist-in-residence programs at Villa Aurora, Los Angeles (2023); Villa Kamogawa – Goethe Institute, Kyoto (2011); Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2006); Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris (2005); Deutsche Akademie Villa Massimo, Rome (1999); among several others.

Nina Fischer studied Visual Communication at the University of the Arts, Berlin, Meisterschülerin of Valie Export and directing at the DFFB – German Film and Television Academy Berlin, Diploma; Maroan el Sani studied Film Studies, Freie Universität Berlin, MA.

They have been Associate Professors for Media Art at Sapporo City University, Japan from 2007- 2010. Since 2014, Nina Fischer is the Professor for Experimental Film and Media Art at the University of the Arts, Berlin.

SAF participation:
Sharjah Biennial 15 (2023)

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