Niels (b. 1993, France) relates to atypical processes, ones which move away from habitual patterns of engaging and being-in-the-world. His interest lies in the weaving and intertwining of practices and perspectives.

He is an transdisciplinary artist, performer and engineer, intrigued by the exploration of movement within physical, visual and sonic worlds. He is curious about the invisible, the out-of-sight, the overlooked and the forgotten. He is driven by a search for alternative ways of creating meaningful connections with listeners. Curious about moving, and being moved.

Collaboration is central to his practice. He looks to be in the perimeter of other people, collaborators and teachers who value honesty, transparency, inclusivity, sensitivity, awareness, and attention. Niels is in the process of developing his own practice as he grows, engaging with the subjects that matter to his immediate context and surroundings — feeding and giving back into the process of research, creation and community.



One Belt. Many Roads (2021-2023)

Agung Kurniawan / Indonesia, Almagul Menlibayeva / Kazakhstan, Behzad Khosravi Noori / Iran, Pakistan, Berhanu Ashagrie Deribew / Ethiopia, Hatem Bourial / Tunesia, transparadiso (Paul Rajakovics, Barbara Holub) / Italy, Yara Mekawei / Egypt.
A project by Grammar of Urgencies (Maren Richter, Klaus Schafler, with Niels Plotard) / Austria.

In a collaborative experimental setting, One Belt. Many Roads investigates eight sites along China’s “New Silk Road” global infrastructure initiative, examining the effects of neo-colonialism on these places, what new types of dependencies or geographies this entails, and which long-standing mechanisms of dependency are being replicated. The “Belt and Road Initiative”, formerly “One Belt, One Road”, is arguably the most comprehensive global project to accelerate the transport of goods between Asia and Europe (including Austria), by which China aims to declare itself the world’s leading economic power. Various transportation corridors will be built for this purpose to achieve the necessary logistics, both on land (with a gigantic high-speed rail network) and on water.

In the VERSUCHSANSTALT of today’s WUK, originally built as a locomotive and machine factory, eleven collaborators from nine countries, who have been working together since 2021, explore how toxic entanglements and their narratives have local and geopolitical impacts.