© n:u, evil eyes. 2026. Photo Tasmin Drury.

Benin/Birmingham, UK
https://www.atmosphere-maker.org/about

n:u (melissandre varin) has been described as an atmosphere-maker, with a practice rooted in Congolese, Guadeloupean, and Beninese heritages. Building upon cross-border collaborations, they unearth ancestral ceremonies to invite shared moments of freedom. They make performance art works, installations, sculptures, and liberatory infrastructures. They play with unexpected pairings between materials, bodies, and concepts, disrupting colonial binaries and dominant narratives. n:u combines intuitive, embodied-knowledge with an approach grounded by Political Ecology from an MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College of London (UCL).  

Recent presentations of their work include performances and exhibitions at Tate Britain (UK), Lọpọ Lọpọ (Benin), Ikon Gallery (UK), the OFF Dakar Biennale (Senegal), Glasgow Buzzcut (UK), Fierce Festival (UK), Kulturfabrik (Luxembourg), Mimosa House (UK), Kunstal Mechelen (Belgium), PAE Aktionslabor (Germany), Ceremony (UK), Contact Theatre (UK), Tangent Projects (Barcelona), and Eastside Projects (UK).

n:u has received awards from institutions including l’Ambassade de France x l’Institut français du Bénin (programme Inspiration Bénin, au coeur des mondes Africains), Franklin Furnace, and the Henry Moore Foundation. They have held fellowships with Axis, John Feeney Trust, and Hood Futures Studio and serve as a steering group member for CVAN WM in the UK, alongside their role as an invited founding member of Popo Culture in Grand Popo, Benin. They have designed atmospheres and infrastructured unusual ways of working, including with longer-term collaborators Eastside Projects, Ban Workshop, and Future Ritual. n:u’s reparative practice is nourished by friendships, conversations with materials, spirits and ancestors, and homes like Finding Etherea.