Olia Fedorova
Born in 1994 in Kharkiv, Ukraine, Olia Fedorova is an artist currently based in Graz, Austria. She is a co-founder and a member of ZIEGEL. Atelier, a community of Ukrainian artists. Since 2015, she has developed a practice centered on language as both a system of signs and a tool for communication. Her works explore the relationship between form and content, as well as the mechanisms of perception, interpretation, and transmission of information.
Fedorova employs words, graphemes, phonemes, and symbols as both subjects and instruments of her research, working through writing, drawing, multimedia, and public art. She also investigates the ethics and feasibility of a unified global language, and the application of text-based methods in urban studies and psychotherapy.
She graduated from the Kharkiv State Academy of Design and Fine Arts (2016) and has exhibited widely in Ukraine and abroad. Her solo shows took place in Kharkiv, Kyiv, Dnipro, Odesa, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Turin. She has participated in residencies and group exhibitions across Europe, the UK, Japan, Argentina, and the USA. Fedorova is a finalist and laureate of multiple awards, including MUHi (2017) and the Nathan Altman Contemporary Visual Art Contest (2016, 2017).
LAND AND SKY OF KHARKIV
2022
Paper rolls, permanent marker
Paper rolls, permanent marker
When Russia launched a full-scale war against Ukraine, the artist’s home city of Kharkiv plunged into darkness due to a blackout. For over a year, one could see the stars at night, which is quite rare for a city of 1.5 million people that was always full of electric lights. However, any visible light in the sky could actually be a rocket or an enemy drone.
The second piece is based on a children’s hopscotch game, where the ground is divided into sections. Players must jump from section to section without stepping beyond the lines. Ukraine’s land is now divided the same way, but by sappers who go through it square by square, doing their demining work. There are no safe squares in this hopscotch.