Nico, in the art world also known as Nicodemus, is a European theatre director, dramaturge, and artist. Alongside his artistic practice, he founded the Democracy School over two decades ago and has led it since, developing into an experienced political educator, strategist and coach in the process. More recently, he also became editor-in-chief of Unruhe Digital Media.
As a director, dramaturg and artist, he is primarily interested in collaborative practices that cut across disciplinary boundaries. His artistic output includes live art and conceptual theatre productions, as well as site-specific and gallery installations.
Through his work with the Democracy School, he developed narrative-driven action learning and narrative coaching, empowering pedagogical techniques derived from his artistic practice, designed to support individuals and groups in their pursuit of fundamental social, economic, and cultural change.
Over two decades of working at the intersection of art and politics led to a crucial insight: most efforts at fundamental systemic change fail because they operate within the system logic they seek to transform. In early 2025, Nico formalised this understanding into narrative prefiguration – a transformational methodology that works creatively with friction, disruption, and fragmentation rather than against them, now informing both his artistic practice and his political work.
Publications
100 Iterations of Collapse, Algorithmic Images of Resistance, Nicodemus Archive, February 2025.
Emergence of the Cube Problem: An Art-Based Research Inquiry, Nicodemus Archive, March 2025.
The Cubic Order: Technological Control, Environmental Collapse, and Resistance, Nicodemus Archive, May 2025.
The Concept and Methodology of Narrative Prefiguration, Unruhe Media, May 2025.
The Practice of Possibility, Unruhe Media, May 2025.
