Nada Gambier ~ Keywords: gentle trespassing, DIY, deviation as a form of attention, contemporary performance, collective writing practices, structured cacophony, in-betweenness, practical research methodologies, experimentation, inventing languages

Nada Gambier is an artist and researcher based in Brussels, Belgium.

Before graduating from the Dutch Art Institute in 2025 she studied contemporary dance in London (London Contemporary Dance School at The Place 1997-2000) and Brussels (P.A.R.T.S. research cycle 2000-2002) and in 2023 she completed a postgraduate program in artistic research in a.pass (Posthogeschool voor Podiumkunsten) in Brussels. Over the years Nada’s artistic practice has developed to become what she now calls crash-disciplinary. The crash-disciplinary approach refers to a voluntary ignorance of disciplinary borders. The process determines the format. Often, Nada begins by working from a multitude of things; objects, images, texts, questions, concepts and her processes are about finding the inner logic specific to the combination of elements brought together in the first place. This is an attitude that attunes to context and time. One could call it a kind of durational jazz. Today Nada works from within an expanded notion of performance, where choreography, writing, video, acting, curating and social engagement constantly converse and collide. Her work is rendered public through performances, publications, exhibitions, workshops, installations, master classes, conversations and fieldwork in the form of encounters with people in different contexts and constellations.

Since 2014 Nada has been focusing on long-term projects in which the separation between research, creation process and public event can be confused and/or abandoned. In 2015 she started her own company Nada & Co. that today produces most of her activities. Between 2020 and 2023 Nada led monthly collective research sessions hosted by several venues in Brussels (Kaaitheater, La Balsamine, Pianofabriek KWP, a.pass etc.), further establishing herself as an advocate for experimentation and research within the arts. The research collective consisted of artists from film, dance, theatre and the visual arts and the aim was to come together to share, in a hands-on way, preoccupations and desires.

Nada also regularly collaborates on other artists’ projects as a performer and artistic advisor. She has worked a.o. with Kate MacIntosh (NZ/DE/BE), Edit Kaldor (HU/NL), Forced Entertainment (UK), Simone Aughterlony (NZ/CH), Jorge Léon (BE), Maria Jerez (ES), Diederik Peeters (BE), Charlotte Vanden Eynde (BE) and Phil Hayes (UK/CH).

Nada is interested in how art can be a territory of cohabitation between the intimate, the social and the political, sameness and difference, familiarity and strangeness. Her aesthetics tend toward the DIY and her processes are collaborative and experimental.  

Her work has been presented  in, among others, Kaaitheater in Brussels, De Brakke Grond in Amsterdam, The Place in London, Far festival in Switzerland, Zodiak in Helsinki, Next Arts festival in Kortrijk, Placcc festival in Budapest, Indisciplinarte in Terni, Center of Contemporary Art in Tbilisi, TDI Student Center in Zagreb, Pneu festival in Salzburg, DeSingel in Antwerp, PACT Zollverein in Essen, Belluard Bollwerk International in Fribourg, Augusti Tantsu festival in Tallinn, Rencontres Chorégraphiques Internationales de Seine-Saint-Denis in Paris, MDT in Stockholm, Mousonturm in Frankfurt and Tanzwerkstatt Europa festival in Munich.

*Learn more about Nada Gambier's 20 minute performance With what do we chose to see? for CHOREIA ~ DAI's Aeroponic Acts 2025 at Centrale Fies in Italy. 

*Learn more about Nada Gambier's written MA thesis (DAI, 2025): ON GENTLE TRESPASSING

*During their journey with DAI, Nada Gambier made significant contributions to: COOP Summit 2024 ~ PRU-DONCE: Cinema on the Radio as well as COOP Summit 2025 ~ Hearing interval; there is a place for you

*Follow Nada's 'Life after DAI' via her website