b. 1975 in the Netherlands
www.vanharskamp.net
Nicoline van Harskamp completed an MA in sculpture at Chelsea College in 1997 and has produced art projects in and outside the UK since. Her series of works on security guards and law enforcement personnel in London and Istanbul were short listed for the Institute of Contemporary Art, London, Beck’s Futures Prize in 2004. Since 1999, she has been a regular participant in a project team for the London-based art and architecture collective Public Works.
Van Harskamp’s artistic practice involves highly concentrated research on the distribution of governmental and private power; as well as individual and collective resistance to existing political systems. She has realised a project that investigated the self-governing, autonomous community Christiana in Denmark, as well as another on surveillance techniques used in Rotterdam and Amsterdam. In 2007 van Harskamp organised a public debate at Casco Projects, Utrecht that involved individuals who can be described as left-wing and right-wing anarchists. She then adapted these debates into scripts and later staged them as a drama. She has also produced a series of 15 booklets entitled 'Amateur Politics' deals with the development of individual political convictions and different modes for practising politics.
Nicoline van Harskamp has widely screened and discussed her work, making a point of doing so both inside and outside the context of art. Her solo exhibitions include 'To Live Outside the Law...' at Nikolaj CCAC, Copenhagen, 2007; Casco projects, Utrecht, 2007; California Museum of Photography, California, 2006. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions including those at YYZ Artists’ Outlet, Toronto, 2008; Gasworks, London, 2008; Extra City, Antwerp, 2008; Sparwasser HQ, Berlin, 2006; De Appel, Amsterdam, 2005. In 2004 she was a nominated for the Beck’s Futures Prize with exhibitions at the Institute of Contemporary Arts, London and Centre for Contemporary Arts, Glasgow.