Nina Beier: Real Estate

This autumn, Bozar—Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, presents a solo exhibition by the Danish artist Nina Beier. While Beier’s practice takes many forms, this exhibition will focus on her sculptural installations. These combine loaded objects in an oblique and unexpected fashion, triggering the critical imagination of those who encounter her enigmatic yet eloquent works. 

Beier has an international career that has recently seen her present major retrospectives in France, Finland and Mexico. Following several projects in Belgium over the years–from Objectif Exhibitions in Antwerp to Kunsthal Ghent or the Beaufort Triennale–this is her first institutional exhibition in Brussels.

The selection of works for this mid-scale exhibition that occupies Bozar’s Antichambres spans the period from 2013 to 2025 and presents a mix of materials and commodities. The artist selects objects that have accrued meaning through their production, use and circulation. The artworks presented here each suggest the presence of human bodies, without depicting one. While the dialogues between the objects on display are sometimes complex—even contradictory—the compositions seem motivated by relatively simple formal relationships. They offer a variety of dynamics: some stand vertically as totems, others lie on the floor like tombstones, while another is suspended from the ceiling; one piece is embedded in the wall, and another seems to emerge from the wall. And at their heart, or intersection, two sculptures rotate restlessly in the central rotunda. Beier’s installations often employ strategies of juxtaposition that challenge or subvert the volatile ideas carried by her chosen objects. Her works oscillate between their material presence and the image they project, defying a singular perspective or interpretation. 

The exhibition is titled Real Estate, named after one of the works it contains. The term hints at the commercialisation of space—here the temporary occupation of a public institution that is inherently not for sale—while also evoking the idea of an artist’s ‘estate’, or body of work and collected possessions. It also refers to the inherent realism of Beier’s work, made from objects found in the real world, but whose appropriation and combination gives them a poetic, critical, irrational or surreal force.

This exhibition is curated by Zoë Gray and is presented in the framework of the Danish Presidency of the Council of the European Union.

 Nina Beier was born in 1975 in Aarhus. She lives and works in Copenhagen. Recently Nina Beier’s work has been the subject of survey exhibitions at Capc in Bordeaux, France (2024); Kiasma in Helsinki, Finland (2024); Tamayo Museum in Mexico (2024); and recent large-scale installations have been installed at Louisiana Museum of Modern Art in Humlebæk, Denmark (2025), Mudam in Luxembourg (2024); Lafayette Anticipations in Paris, France (2024); Art Sonje Center in Seoul, South Korea (2023); Haus am Waldsee in Berlin (2023); the Lyon Biennale in France (2022); the Busan Biennale in Korea (2022); the High Line in New York (2022); the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles (2022); Pinacoteca Agnelli in Turin (2022); the São Paulo Biennial in Brazil (2021). Beier also has a permanent sculpture, titled Men, in Nieuwpoort, installed on the shore since 2018 in the framework of the Beaufort Triennial.