KN

Voisins is a relational project based on the exchange of personal items with the inhabitants of Anderlecht, a district of Brussels. For two weeks, Nicolela occupied a room of the Maison des Artistes, where she offered, as in a flea market, personal objects of hers to be exchanged with the inhabitants of the neighborhood for another personal object. Once chosen the object, Nicolela invited the participant to tell a story behind this object to a video camera - a mix of personal memories aroused by the object, and fiction suggested by it. The artist has edited the portraits / stories in a looped video diptych, projected on various pedestals where the objects she received during the exchanges are arranged.

Another variation of the intimate theater brought by Kika Nicolela is the Voisins project. While their hands touch objects belonging to the artist, men and women, left alone in front of the camera, tell themselves through this inanimate presence. Their stories with these things are pieces of their intimate life. They build a sort of common memory between the artist and her audience: an infinite "we", given the sharing of objects and stories. It is with the life around us as with our relation to everyday objects, an apparent insignificance. This, however, poses a prerequisite: a sense of belonging that says "I do not want to forget". 

excerpt of the text by Raya Lindberg for the catalogue of the exhibition "An infini désir de nous"