Nile Koetting
All in One / Terra Mater
July 5 - 26
Unit110 is pleased to present Nile Koetting: All in One / Terra Mater (2018). This is the first solo exhibition
of the artist in the United States. All in One / Terra Mater is an ongoing installation piece exploring the
intersection between human and nature, relocating them through the exhibition space, and evoking a new
perspective, as well as a landscape of “being” in our global ecology.
Taking the form of a public shower room, the exhibition space has been furnished with a shower unit,
swimsuit, shampoo bottle and body soap, towel, bath mat, and bathrobe with emergency whistles. Some
of the objects have names printed on them, such as “Cindy” and “Emily,” which are taken from a list of
future hurricane names from 2018 to 2023.
Atlantic tropical storms have been named by the National Hurricane Center since 1953 and are maintained
and updated through a strict procedure by an international committee of the World Meteorological
Organization. Using this information as an access point, Koetting’s work explores an animistic worldview
towards nature and the environment.
In an ongoing project, the artist is also developing a series of cosmetic products for the “extremely
extended body” titled Terra Mater (2018) visible in the exhibition as Earth Calming Shampoo & Conditioner
and Sea & Sky Cleanser. Terra Mater finds shared experiences between the local and global body, which
are refreshed in the public shower room again and again.
Nile Koetting ( b. 1989, Japan) studied media, sound art and performance art at Tama Art University in
Tokyo, Japan and at Aalto University, Helsinki, Finland. He works with a diverse range of media, including
performance, text, sound, and installation. Derived from Koetting’s experience as a stage performer,
his works constantly reflect ideas of theatrical structure. Koetting’s work has been presented at Mori
Art Museum, Fondation d’entreprise Hermès, Tokyo, Japan; ZKM, Karlsruhe; Kunstverein Hannover,
Hannover; Between Bridges, Berlin, Germany; Moscow International Biennale of Contemporary Art, and
Cooper Cole, Toronto, Canada. Koetting lives and works in Berlin, Germany
