‘My art is anchored in the human context,’ says Ukrainian-Tunisian artist Nadia Kaabi-Linke speaking to me from Berlin. ‘I am concerned about the core questions of humanity. We all deserve to live in peace, to eat, sleep, learn and grow. Issues such as racism, war, concerns about the natural environment affect us all. You cannot separate politics from society and you cannot separate politics from art. All art is political, even if an artist says that they are not.’
Kaabi-Linke’s award-winning conceptional artworks and installations speak a universal language, exploring issues ranging from geographical borders to domestic violence and ethnic segregation. She lives between Kyiv, Berlin and Tunis, and speaks Russian, Arabic, French, English and German. She is now learning Italian and Ukrainian. Nadia tells me she is not a natural linguist, rather, acquiring multilingual skills is a necessity of her lived experience.
