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n:u (melissandre varin) (b. Gonesse, France) is an atmosphere-maker based in Birmingham, UK. Working as an atmosphere-maker emerges from their Congolese sapeur heritage, and their practice as an environmental artist. They develop an ecologically care-full practice of receptivity, encounter, reciprocity and transformation, creating performances, installations, sculptures and liberatory infrastructures. Their practice invites different ways to be with change by blurring colonial lines between designers and participants and making unexpected pairings between materials and concepts. Being self-taught in the arts, they hold a master’s degree in Environment and Sustainable Development from University College of London (UCL).

n:u (melissandre varin) has collaborated with transnational artistic centres, such as Eastside Projects (GB), Ban Workshop (SE) and KutlturFabrik (LU). They have created the vision for several art initiatives, such as les ongles noirs (dirty nails) (2022-2024) - an across continents experimental art project centring play, grief, and the unknown; B.O.O.K (2020-2023) - an art collective and curatorial project supporting Black artists in the UK; and Open Call (2020-2023) - an online (now archived) platform commissioning and redistributing resources to artist-researchers. They have contributed to exhibitions, talks/workshops, and performance programmes at various institutions Ikon Gallery, Roehampton University, and FABRIC, among others. They have been invited to residencies such as artikulationsprozesse,PAE Aktionslabor (DE),Talking Birds (GB), Our Teaching Takes Shape As We Go international project Africa/UK: Transforming Art Ecologies (MA). They were a 2024 MAIA Fellow (GB) and are aSteering Group member at CVAN WM 2025-2028 (GB). They were a nominated recipient of theHenry Moore Artist Award 2022, a 2021 International Changemaker awardee by the City of Culture Trust and the British Council, and a Coventry Artspace in Action awardee in 2020.