Works
Nicolas Pelzer creates works using sculpture, video, and print that focus on the evolution of tools and their relationship to the human hand. He cuts his nails often.
When they are no longer part of our body, nails become something we want to stay away from—an abject object. They shift from being part of our sense of touch to something we no longer want to touch. The Unused Five magnifies a trivial gesture such as cutting one’s nails by enlarging their remnants in scale. The tools for cutting, however, are now quite different: 3D scanning and printing are combined with plaster moulding to shape five sculptures that also conceal the essential tasks once performed by hands. Yet, despite our insistence on cutting them, fingernails keep growing.
The Unused Five, 2019
Polymer-modified plaster, pigment, plastic chair
Galerie im Körnerpark
27 June – 7 October 2026
Galerie im Körnerpark
Schierker Straße 8
12051 Berlin
With works by Ana María Millán, Anaïs Senli, Ella C Bernard, Kamal Aljafari, Martins Kohout, Nooshin Askari, Xenia Bond, Zuzanna Czebatul
Bärenzwinger
19 February – 10 May 2026
Bärenzwinger
Im Köllnischen Park
10179 Berlin
With Ran Zhang and Lolo & Sosaku
Galerie Im Turm
11 February – 15 March 2026
Galerie im Turm
Frankfurter Tor 1
10243 Berlin
Screening programme with video works by Crystal Z Campbell, Ellinor Aurora Aasgaard & Zayne Armstrong, John Smith, Laura Nitsch, Marta Popivoda.
With a shadow intervention from Anaïs Senli & Eduardo da Conceição.
Kunstraum Bethanien/Kreuzberg
18 October 2025 – 11 January 2026
Kunstraum Bethanien/KreuzbergMariannenplatz 2
10997 Berlin