“Nika Neelova lives and works in London”. A seemingly ordinary, run of the mill sentence. And yet one which contains a tentative, verbal sense of ‘home’ for the artist. The daughter of parents who for reasons of profession never really settled anywhere, Neelova was born in Moscow but spent her childhood in many different countries. She arrived everywhere with the certain knowledge that she would soon have to leave again. This was a reality of her life, which was shaped by permanent farewells. A biography which in the future could become increasingly conventional. Such a life journey resembles a metaphoric rowing boat whose oarsman is looking back at the past while rowing towards the future. This metaphor constitutes the central element of her current installations in the Halle am Wasser exhibition.

What is left of an identity in a place which was never able to become a real home? According to the artist, what remains is “something that you miss but can’t ever retrieve, because the memory got distorted or exaggerated long ago”. These memories are unique and unequivocally linked to every single individual. But what are memories exactly? What do they feel like? What consistency do they have? Can they be manipulated? Do they belong to us alone? Are they truthful? Above all, can they be translated into art without becoming memory kitsch?

These are questions which spring to mind when considering Neelova’s work. The materials she uses are continuous conveyors of memory: wood, wax, glass and charcoal - all fragile, brittle, perishable or particularly susceptible to the traces of time. Deployed within Neelova’s installations, these fragments have lost their original function. They are broken, twisted, weather-beaten, ripped, burnt or decayed. They are like a mirror that has gone blind and can no longer present a complete reflection, thereby making itself and its subject unreachable, intangible. The same can be seen in her antique oars created from plaster (castings of a 1910 oar), which move the boat inexorably into the future, while the rower turns to face the past. Places from the past linger on. No sooner have we filled them with our own memories than the material begins to withdraw themselves. Even the fragment of a ship’s hull is no longer fit for use.

When observing her works, the prevalence of the colour black is striking. Neelova herself calls it “the colour of the end of every material” and with it she transfers into sculpture the heavy, earthy, sombre portrait backgrounds which Rembrandt used in painting as an announcement of time and a motif of transience. Nika Neelova plunges the observer into their own universe of memory fragments which touch the heart. Inexplicable as it is, it seems we can always sense the intense fragility of this one idea which ultimately remains – the memory of a life.

We are delighted to present the artist Nika Neelova’s first solo exhibition in Germany. Since graduating from the Slade School of Fine Art in London in 2010, the 24 year old artist has been represented in distinguished international collections with her installations. Following the successful presentation at Volta7 in Basel, we now show her latest installations in Berlin.