Kseniayurkova.art

02/10/2024

I am glad to announce that my move “Easter” will be shown in the framework of the Instants Vidéo Numériques et poétiques Instants Vidéo Numériques et Poétiques in Marseille. The date is October 18. The program starts at 14.00 (CET), and I will join online at 14.45. The venue is FRICHE LA BELLE DE MAI at the Seita Theater (Friche la, 41 Rue Jobin, 13003 Marseille, France). The complete program is in the link in the first comment.

23/09/2024

Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men, a group show initiated by EMIRHAKIN at W139, Amsterdam. With works by Andreas Tegnander & Ossip Blits, Batuhan Keskiner, Can Demren, EMIRHAKIN, ghenwa noiré, Jonas Lerch, Ksenia Yurkova, Mohammed Tatour and Zalán Szakács.

Till November, 3rd, 2024.

Opening photography: Elodie Vreeburg
Exhibition photography: Giovanni Salice

11/09/2024

27/08/2024

I am excited to announce that my work "Easter" will be premiered in Amsterdam at W139 on the 6th of September.

6 Sep—​3 Nov 2024
Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men
EMIRHAKIN, Andreas Tegnander and Ossip Blits, Başak Layiç, Batuhan Keskiner, Can Demren, Elif Satanaya Özbay, Ghaith Kween Qoutainy, Ghenwa noiré, Jonas Lerch, Ksenia Yurkova, Mohammed Tatour, Sipan Sezgin Tekin, Zalán Szakács

Initiated by EMIRHAKIN, Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men reflects on (self-)censorship as a highly tangible experience, ████ proposing ways for maneuvering through fear. ██████ ████ █ ███, ████. In this exhibition, the strategies of oppressive regimes and their bodily implications are explored, subverted, ██████ and reappropriated through a careful spatial choreography. How does political coercion permeate the personal, infiltrate bodily boundaries, and ███████████?
EMIRHAKIN has invited a group of artists to reconfigure the symbols and strategies associated with fear and oppression—holding space to reflect on the erasure of choice, identity, agency, ████ and life within heavily politicized structures. ████ █████ ███ ████. Taking shape through video works, archival footage, performances, ████, sound and light installations, and paintings, the exhibition navigates the manufacturing of (cultural) identity, ████ ██████, nationalism, the impact of censorship, and life under authoritarian regimes.
Informed by ███ personal experiences as a ████ ████ in ████, EMIRHAKIN’s practice ██████ and visualizes the personal, emotional, and physical consequences of (self-)censorship while simultaneously paving a pathway for vulnerability and resilience. In a recurring part of the programme, EMIRHAKIN reflects on the █████ and ████ of ███ life under suppression—delving deeper into the ideological construct of masculinity that profoundly influenced his ██████ and █████.
Witnessing the rise of the right-wing and its effect on the freedom of expression, Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men invites you to traverse the complexities of contemporary political realities, in the shadows of systems of ██████, manipulation, commodification, and racialization. The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive context programme of performances, movie screenings, ████ █████ and a night of storytelling.
Participating artists: Andreas Tegnander & Ossip Blits, Batuhan Keskiner, Can Demren, EMIRHAKIN, ghenwa noiré, Jonas Lerch, Ksenia Yurkova, Mohammed Tatour and Zalán Szakács.

08/05/2024

I am happy to announce that my video work Negative Space (2020) will be shown at the ALC video art festival at MACA Museum of Contemporary Art Alicante (Spain) ALC VideoArt Festival. The festival will run from May 8th to 11th, and my screening will be on May 10th.



Negative Space (2020)

Duration 7:30’
3-channel, Full-HD, colour, stereo
English subtitles
Idea, text, editing: Ksenia Yurkova
Music: NACHALO (Solo Operator (baritone saxophone loopers) and Innokin (electro-acoustic cello)

In her piece, Ksenia Yurkova mixes private, intimate material with found footage, juxtaposing unrelated narratives and tailoring them together by using unobvious formal and metaphoric elusive bonds. This cross-influence has the power to make the material simultaneously grotesque and disturbing. Its theme, at first glance, can be comprehended as an accentuation of the pronouncedly inverted relations. Whose liminality is revealed through a non-distinction of a real and unreal beholder. But more important is the question put in between the disjoin screens: whether these visuals can operate as an enclosed structure or it has a slit for a peeping gaze: through an interruption, an interval, a promise.

20/02/2024

We welcome artists to participate in our new survey, published shortly before our new residency round. As usual, InSILo will offer five fully paid slots in the artists‘ residence in Lower Austria.

The current and the previous year have forced us to take a fresh look at freedom of artistic expression and recognise that it is threatened not only in countries with authoritarian regimes but also in countries with competitive democratic elections. This survey aims to capture this moment, analyse the atmosphere in the artistic environment, and serve as a critical basis for the new „Non-Utterance“ Open Call, which explores censorship and self-censorship in art.

N.B.! It is crucial to participate in the survey even if you have never experienced censorship and pressure upon your artistic expression. One can participate in the survey anonymously. For this, please use any anonymised email address.

P.S. At the end of February, we will publish the results of our previous survey about artists‘ wages. The results are truly surprising (but very frustrating)! Once more, we thank all 182 people who contributed to our research, which allowed us to understand the community’s struggles and shape our thematic calls accordingly.

To participate: https://in-silo.com/survey2024

11/12/2023

In November 2023, the Supreme Court of Russia recognised the «international public LGBT movement» as «extremist,» outlawing any public LGBTQ+ -related activity. The prohibition of LGBTQ+ in Russia is not a novelty; the major conservative turn was made back in 2013 with the approval of the so-called anti-gay law or the law «for the Purpose of Protecting Children from Information Advocating a Denial of Traditional Family Values».

In 2020 – 2021, for my series Degrees, Plains, and Two Stumbles Ahead, I worked, among others, with the representatives of the LGBTQ+ community living in Russia. My task was to study the traumatic experiences of individuals relating themselves to the collective body of resistance. I focused on victims of violence against social movements or protests, on people who physically and morally suffered fighting for their rights or the rights of the groups to which they related. In a studio space, I asked participants to recall and reenact the scenes of assaults, postures and bodily sensations. The participatory practice was focused on the motion prolonged in time, as well as on the changing power dynamics. Our task was not to drown in the recalled emotions but to distantly observe the pre-emotional affectous reactions of our swinging bodies. To use photography as a medium would mean to shift the focus of perception of the traumatising episode – to prolong it, dissect it, and give a «voice» to the body expression. The performative practice was not pursuing a documentary aspect; it was not a precise reconstruction of an event; however, subjective interpretation of a first-hand witness.

(c) Ksenia Yurkova, Installation in the frames of the Recognition Awards Exhibition, NÖDOK, St. Pölten, Austria, November 30, 2023 – January 14, 2024.

21/11/2023

https://dergreif.org/guest-room/damarice-amao--matthias-pfaller

Guest Room aims to spark collaboration. Damarice Amao, associate curator for photography at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, has decided to team up with photography historian and curator Matthias Pfaller. Together, they have developed the following framework for your submissions: “Empathy”. "We are...

04/10/2023

I was honestly surprised about the award, bearing in mind the right-wing inclinations in Lower Austrian cultural policy. I was even told: well, you are the first person to get this prize who doesn't speak German. I said, maybe I still do not express myself in it freely, but I understand enough. It is similar to witnessing elections without having citizenship and a right to vote, you know. (Not that I am saying I had this luxury of expressing myself freely back in my country and always enjoyed the political agency of citizenship. Right on the contrary). Anyway, I know that the project recognised by the jury was Degrees - the one in which I worked with political activists back in Russia in 2019-2020. It is crucial to acknowledge that there was and still is a protest movement. I don't want these people to be erased.

26/09/2023

Today, I was happy to receive a publication followed the PhotoIreland festival that took place in Rathfarnham Casle in Dublin, in July 2021. The book is deliberately edited by .gelezova whom I am thankful for her attentive and precise approach. I am also glad to see the contribution by , who could scoop my heavyweight concepts into one elegant and exciting text.

27/08/2023

A tryout to make a storyboard for my next movie. Pencil as the first-time weapon of choice during the class of "Sharpening Pencils and Thoughts: Text XX to Drawing" in frames of .at