Kika Nicolela is a Brazilian artist, filmmaker and independent curator based in Brussels. Having video and new technologies as tools, she proposes experiences that question the stories we make about the world and about ourselves. Graduated in Film Studies by the University of Sao Paulo, Nicolela has also completed a Master of Fine Arts at the Zurich University of the Arts (ZHDK). Kika Nicolela has participated of hundreds of solo and group exhibitions at art institutions worldwide, including the KW Institute for Contemporary Art (DE), the Museum of Image and Sound (BR), National Museum of Contemporary Art (PT), Museum of Modern Art (AR), Parc de La Vilette (FR), Villa Empain/ Boghossian Foundation (BE) and GL Strand (DK). Her videos have been screened and awarded in festivals of more than 30 countries, such as Bilbao International Film Festival, Oberhausen International Short Film Festival, Japan Media Arts Festival and Videoformes. As a curator, Kika Nicolela has developed programs for several festivals and museums, such as the National Gallery (IS), Loop Barcelona (ES), Festival Miden (GR), Transcultures (BE), Ibrida Festival (IT), Wikitopia (HK) and SESC (BR). She is represented by the Galerie Charlot (Paris/Tel Aviv) and Area35 (Milan). Since January 2022 Nicolela has been creating, curating and collecting NFTs. She has recently been appointed curator for Objkt.com.

"What is your idea of Brazil?" That is the question Kika Nicolela asked on a social network. She then used all replies as prompts for an AI. She subsequently combined all the resulting output images on a larger digital canvas through the use of outpainting AI tools, and finally animated the work. The resulting piece is an ambiguous and enigmatic portrait of a fantasied country. Imperfect as every portrait. Imperfect because there is no way to make sense of a country with so many contradictions. Beautiful and sad, warm and violent, generous and implacable, abundant and miserable. The piece is also an homage to Brazilian modernism: within her prompts, Nicolela integrated references to various Brazilian modernist painters, as way to decolonize prompting – most AI art uses European art as reference. 'Brazil' was finished on the day of the 2022 Brazilian elections, which revealed the profound division the country finds itself at the moment. The political fate of this giant country concerns the whole planet: the Amazon rainforest has never been so devastated as during these past few months.

MrTaztaz