n:u (melissandre varin) (b. Gonesse, France, 1992) creates spaces for freedom. Their ecologically care-full practice as an atmosphere-maker is rooted in Congolese, Guadeloupean, and Beninese heritages. 

Building upon (more than) human, cross-border collaboration, they unearth ancestral ceremonies to be with change. Their work manifests as liberatory infrastructures, performances, sculptures, and installations. They play with unexpected pairings between materials, bodies, and concepts, disrupting colonial binaries and dominant narratives.

During their Feeney fellowship n:u researches towards undeclared love, investigating land-more than human-human (im)possible relationships in the future with performative sculpture making. This work touches upon contemporary and ancestral approaches to change in a time of polycrises - including ecocides. Investigating power re-balancing potentials enabled by the making of sculptures with historically undervalued materials. The experiment is supported by mentorships, studio visits, and studio based research on materiality. 

n:u combines intuitive, embodied-knowledge in artmaking with a political ecology approach grounded by an MSc in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College of London (UCL). 

Their experimental practice unfolds with emotional excavation, ancestrality and devotional use of materials (rum, oil, soil, hair) , as well as curatorial decolonial initiatives across diasporic contexts, such as les ongles noirs dirty nails (Dakar–Birmingham, 2022–24), B.O.O.K (supporting Black artists in the UK, 2020–23), Open Call (platform for artist-researchers now archived, 2020-23) and PAPAYA (afro-feminist collective, 2019–23). 

n:u is currently a Feeney fellow (2025-26), Axis Fellow (2025-26), a CVAN WM steering group member (2025-28). They have been invited to create atmospheres by organisations such as Eastside Projects, Ban Workshop, Ikon Gallery, TaPRA, Future Ritual, Fierce Festival, Ambassade de France et l’Institut français du Bénin.