NILE KOETTING

MOOD BOARD

June 7 – July 20

First impressions

Nile Koetting’s drawings are bathed in flamboyant hues, traversing non-places inhabited by solitary machines and screens untouched by human hands. With pastel chalk, he sketches an automated checkout at Zara, interactive kiosks in a New York train station, a still life in a Paris coworking space, a security robot from Berlin Brandenburg airport’s terminal.

At first glance, the radiant light seems to sublimate these spaces, symbols of mobility control and labor automation, softening the brutality of their operations. Dwelling on the smoothing and aestheticizing of reality as a form of distraction is a recurring logic in Koetting’s work. Aside from Mood Board, we can remember his performance and exhibition series Remain Calm1, in which he unfolds choreographies drawn from natural disaster preparedness protocols. These performances adopt the soothing, reassuring tone of emergency communication, the kind that urges calm in the face of impending catastrophe. We might also consider the way the artist conceives sculptures that borrow from UX design and muzak, techniques that subtly guide our attention and behavior, rendering mechanisms of extraction satisfying and playful.

This tension between surface seduction and underlying violence is present not only in the contrast between non-places and radiant flamboyance, but also in the very atmosphere of the Mood Board drawings. The hazy clouds through which the machines struggle to emerge evoke sunsets intensified by pollution, blood-red skies from wildfires, the yellow-grey envelope of smog, or the orange glow of sandstorms—at once seductive and invasive, carriers of latent threat. Beyond merely evoking these toxic phenomena, some drawings encapsulate them materially. The white chalk used for CO² study in mineralization: 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑙2 (𝑎𝑞) + 𝐻2𝐶𝑂3 (𝑎𝑞) → 𝐶𝑎𝐶𝑂3 (𝑠) + 2 𝐻+ + 2 � �𝑙− (1), (2), still in an experimental phase, is developed from mineralized carbon dioxide by the research lab Pureosity Labs at Kyoto University, as part of their work on atmospheric purification technologies.

Mood Board is the artist’s second solo show at Parliament, and his very first drawing exhibition. During a conversation, when I asked what he was working on, he replied with a smile and a hint of irony at the cliché: impressionism.

Koetting’s impressionism isn’t just about plays of light or contemporary natural landscapes. For him, impressionism is a deeply current mode of expression, one he links to performativity in today’s economy of attention and imagery. It’s a form of communication based on immediate impact, bypassing and replacing reflection, lasting no more than three to seven seconds, according to first impressions’ experts. This phenomenon has been reified in the very design of digital platforms: impression has become a social currency to be managed and optimized, a powerful tool for personal, professional, and financial advancement. As echoed by the rounded corners of Koetting’s drawings reminiscent of the iPhone, by their frames inspired by Apple’s industrial design, or by his fictitious business cards: every image is an interface.

Nile Koetting (born in 1989 in Kamakura) is currently based between Paris and Tokyo. His recent solo exhibitions include Blossoms – Fulfilment, Warehouse TERRADA, Tokyo (2025, upcoming); Powerhouse, E-WERK Freiburg, Freiburg im Breisgau (2025, upcoming); Blossoms CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, Lisbon (2024); Optimization of Yesterday (optional now +) – site-specific video installation, Shibuya Crossing, Tokyo (2024); Poly Harmony, Gallery Wedding, Berlin (2023); Unattended Access, Galerie Parliament, Paris (2023); Remain Calm – Air氣, Tai Kwun Contemporary, Hong Kong (2021); Remain Calm I ﺮﻣﺎﻏ ءوﺪھ , Sharjah Art Foundation, Sharjah (2020); 保持冷静, Centre Pompidou × West Bund Museum, Shanghai (2019); Remain Calm, Kunstverein Göttingen, Göttingen (2019); All in One, Unit 110, New York City (2019); Whistler, Yamamoto Gendai, Tokyo (2016); Hard in Organics, Yamamoto Gendai, Tokyo (2015); ESSE, Tokyo International Forum, Tokyo (2014). Nile Koetting has also participated in several group exhibitions, including at Kunsthalle Darmstadt (Darmstadt, upcoming); Palais de Tokyo (Paris); CAPC (Bordeaux); the 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art (Kanazawa); Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo (tokyo), Fondation Hermès (Tokyo); Somerset House (London); Kunstverein Göttingen (Göttingen); Thailand Biennale (Korat); ZKM (Karlsruhe); and the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo). Nile Koetting’s works are represented in several private and public collections, including the Centre Pompidou (Paris) and the Takahashi Collection (Tokyo).