Nora Mesaros
Nora Mesaros works with diverse mediums such as drawing, animation, video, and installation. She is currently based in Berlin. After receiving a bachelor’s degree from the Academy of Arts in Novi Sad (Serbia), she moved to Germany to continue her studies as a DAAD Scholarship holder. She graduated from the Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, earning the title Meisterschülerin. Rooted in her personal experiences, her artworks endure as traces or remnants of the journey traveled and as parts of a sort of private archive.
noramesaros.com
RESUME
Academic Education
2017 – 2020
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, Germany, Department of Fine Art, Meisterschüler
2015 – 2017
Dresden Academy of Fine Arts, Germany, Department of Fine Art, Diplom
2009 – 2013
Academy of Arts in Novi Sad,Serbia, Department of Fine Art, Bachelor Studies
Solo Exhibitions
2024
matter that matters, Gallery Zemin, Berlin, Germany
2022
Blindfolded, with Gojko Dutina, Gallery O3ONE, Belgrade, Serbia
2021
Accent - Mind the Gap!, Showcase exhibition, Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden, Germany
2020
walk so lightly, Exhibition of the Hegenbarth scholarship holders 2019: Elise Beutner and Nora Mesaros, Dresden City Art Gallery, Dresden, Germany
2019
I am the House, Gallery Šok Zadruga, Novi Sad, Serbia
Inside out, with Mona Pourebrahim, Gallery Brüderstrasse, Görlitz, Germany
2018
mostly sunny, with Gojko Dutina, Gallery EX14, Dresden, Germany
Group exhibitions
2025
OSTRALE 025 - Biennale for Contemporary Art, Robotron-Kantine, Dresden, Germany
2024
Anonymous Drawings, Kunstquartier Bethanien, Berlin, Germany
Losito Kunstpreis 2024, Gallery di, Berlin, Germany
A mano libera, Gallery Lavì! City, Bologna, Italy
RE:VISION, Gallery Nord I Kunstverein Tiergarten, Berlin, Germany
2023
The Paths of Cohesion II, MAMŰ Gallery, Budapest, Hungary
Connecting Worlds: Atists & Travel, Kupferstich-Kabinett Dresden, Germany
Utsusu - Chronicle Vol.2, Villa Heike, Berlin, Germany
2022
Kahnweiler-Preis 2022: Arbeiten auf Papier, Museum für Kunst, Rockenhausen, Germany
Förderpreis Junge Kunst 2022, Rathaus-Galerie Reinickendorf, Berlin, Germany
Verschwinden, Oktogon, Dresden, Germany
Awards, Scholarships and Residencies
2024
2nd Prize of Losito Kunstpreis 2024, Losito • Kressmann-Zschach Foundation, Berlin, Germany
2024
Grand Prize of A mano libera, Associazione culturale Spazio Lavì!, Bologna, Italy
2023
Artists in residence | Block Art Cultural Association, Budapest, Hungary
2022
1st Prize of the Young Art Award 2022, Kommunale Galerien Berlin & Kunstverein Centre Bagatelle, Berlin, Germany
NEUSTART KULTUR: Kickstarter-Zuschuss für Absolvent:innen von Kunsthochschulen, Stiftung Kunstfonds, Germany
2021
Grand Prize of the 14th Biennial of Watercolor, Zrenjanin, Serbia
INITIAL Special Grant, Akademie der Künste, Berlin, Germany
2019
4th Prize of the Collage Competition, Willi Münzenberg Forum, Berlin, Germany
1st Prize of the Video Competition, Nordhorn Music Festival, Germany
2018
Hegenbarth Stipendium, Foundation for Art and Culture Dresden of the Ostsächsische Sparkasse Dresden, Germany
2015-2017
DAAD- Study Scholarships for Foreign Graduates in the Fields of Fine Art, Design/Visual Communication and Film
PORTFOLIO
poroton clay block, building plaster
30 x 12 x 8 cm, 12 x 12 x 12 cm, 8 x 30 x 12 cm
2020
Color: Façade addresses the many abandoned houses built in the architectural style typical of the Balkan countries. Some owners left their houses before they were finished, seeking a better life abroad. As a result, the façades are often without rendering plaster, leaving the clay blocks from which the houses are built exposed. This creates a distinctive coloring that is characteristic of the region's architecture. Mesaros collected remnants of clay blocks from the courtyards of these abandoned houses and pressed them together with building plaster to form new 'stones': the essence of the prevailing colors.
video
full-HD, loop 5:27 min
2023
The film As the eye has seen it presents an individual interpretation of Zacharias Wagner's historically and culturally significant Book of Animals (1634–41), which sheds light on socio-political dimensions in the context of travel.
Uncovering surprising interpretations in the comparison of the historical imagery of the book and our contemporary world, the film delves into the evolving relationship between humanity and nature. Within the film, I apply a fictitious observer, the Eye, whose perspective we follow as it weaves together diverse impressions from different time periods. Thereby, the film serves as a poignant reminder of how the past continues to shape our lives today.
The film As the eye has seen it is part of the installation Looking for various perspectives on Zacharias Wagner's Thier Buch, together with Dorothée Billard's film Fishfile and the Book of Animals.
animation
full-HD, loop 3:45 min
2020
The animation Garden is a multi-layered narrative that combines conceptual interpretations of home and childhood memory. Searching my children's books for texts and illustrations in my former children's room, I selected text and image excerpts in order to reinterpret them in unusual sequences. The film spaces are developed from the photos of the interiors and surroundings that I took in my childhood home. By coating the photographed subjects with the scanned image parts of the illustrations, the strangely enraptured dream world of the film was created. This combination leaves the space and time of the plot undefined. The protagonist is sent on a lonely journey, into a visually displaced world.
printed photos on wooden panels
15 parts, each 6 x 8.5 x 2.5 cm
2018 – ongoing
This series of photographs represents unfinished but abandoned houses in a small town in Eastern Serbia. Many are leaving this place, because of economic coercion and fundamental discontent. These houses are for sale, but there are no buyers, so they are falling apart and becoming part of the environment and nature.
Inspired by real estate commercial pictures, the deficiencies of these houses are well hidden. The tall grass, the trash in the yard, destroyed roads, aged electrical system, - everything that would ruin a good advertisement, is erased with white colors with the aim of hiding the economic state of the town. The printed motives of the houses are simplified to the essential elements of what makes a house a house: façade, door, windows, and roof. Erasing the social and personal aspects and details from the pictures, a house itself is shown in his simplest form, (seemingly) as a potential home for everybody.