Nora Jil Helga Langen (b. 1993, Cologne) is an artist and curator living and working in Cologne. Her practice operates at the intersection of sculpture, installation, and spatial intervention, focusing on materiality, space, and the human body as a site of resistance and transformation. In 2025, she received her diploma from the Academy of Fine Arts Leipzig (HGB) in the class for Installation and Space under Prof. Joachim Blank.
Her work explores the tension between vulnerability and strength, as well as the fluid transition between physical and psychological states. Using raw, responsive, and transient materials such as unprocessed clay and wax, she examines movement, impermanence, and resistance, capturing both ephemeral and enduring aspects of transformation. Her multidisciplinary approach incorporates drawing, video, photography, and classical molding techniques to investigate shifting processes. Her artistic research extends into interdisciplinary collaborations, engaging with biological and sociological perspectives on self-protection mechanisms in nature, as well as political discourses on bodily autonomy.
Langen’s curatorial practice is installation-based and explores participatory formats. From 2019 to 2024, she directed Bistro 21, an independent art space in Leipzig dedicated to cross-disciplinary exchange, serving as a platform for artistic autonomy and collective discourse. Her curatorial approach is deeply informed by her artistic practice, prioritizing spatial interventions and the dismantling of hierarchical structures within exhibition-making. In institutional contexts, she has developed projects in public space and worked in the fields of graphic design and art education.