KSENIA YURKOVA

(b. 1984, LENINGRAD, USSR)
SHORT ~ 700 characters:
Ksenia Yurkova is an artist, curator, and researcher. Her leading artistic media are text, photography, video, and installation. The main focus of interest is communication and language: the varieties of its substance, the possibility of conversion, mythological aspects, stereotyping (personal and political identification), problems of memory, attitudes, and reliance. Lately, the artist has researched the phenomenon of affect in its autonomous bodily emanation; in personal and political registers. Yurkova has participated in numerous shows and festivals worldwide and has been awarded several stipends. Her works are in public and private collections, mainly in Russia, Germany, France, Finland, and Austria. At present, Yurkova operates AIR InSILo (Austria).

MEDIUM ~ 1000 characters:
Ksenia Yurkova is an artist, curator, and researcher. Her leading artistic media are text, photography, video, and installation. The main focus of her interest is communication and language: the varieties of its substance, the possibility of conversion, mythological aspects, stereotyping (personal and political identification), problems of memory, attitudes, and reliance. Lately, the artist has researched the phenomenon of affect in its autonomous bodily emanation; in personal and political registers.
Ksenia Yurkova has taken part in numerous shows and festivals worldwide, including Donau Festival '25; Photoireland Festival '21; Backlight Festival'20; Athens Photo Festival '19, '17, '15; Krakow Photo Month '19; Grandprix Fotofestival '15; a screening at Documenta@15; three times has been nominated to Kuryohin Prize, was awarded stipends from the Austrian Ministry of Culture and Sport, and by the Federal State of Lower Austria; has released several artist books. Her works are in public and private collections worldwide, mainly in Russia, Germany, France, Finland, and Austria. Currently, Ksenia Yurkova is operating AIR InSILo (Austria) and is pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

LONG ~ 2250 characters:
Ksenia Yurkova is an artist, curator, and researcher living in Austria. She considers her leading artistic media to be text, photography, video, and installation. Yurkova started her practice as a researcher in the field of political theory and communication theory. The main focus of her interest for a long time was communication and language: the varieties of its substance, the possibility of conversion, its mythological aspect, stereotyping (the question of personal and political self-identification and identification by others), problems of memory, attitudes, and reliance. Lately, the artist has been researching the phenomenon of affect in its autonomous bodily emanation; in its personal and political registers. She focuses on how a stage of individual perception, to which one can relate memory, traumatic recollection, and problems of identity construction, transforms itself into affects of the political body. Coming a long way from political and cultural journalism, Ksenia settled into individual artistic and research practice through organising and curating cultural and art events, which allows the vital critical distance for observation and work with contemporary issues. Her approach is based on methods of language appropriation, over-affirmation, self-reflection, and self-criticism through ironic components inevitably added to the most pressing matters. As an artistic director, Yurkova worked at the St. Petersburg-based exhibition centre Tkachi until it was closed due to political censorship and subsequent emigration. Afterwards, Ksenia launched a festival-laboratory, Suoja/Shelter, in Finland and an artist-in-residence research program, InSILo, in Austria, with Emergency slots for artists under political pressure.
Ksenia Yurkova has taken part in numerous shows and festivals worldwide, including Donau Festival '25; Photoireland Festival '21; Backlight Festival'20; Athens Photo Festival '19, '17, '15; Krakow Photo Month '19; Grandprix Fotofestival '15; a screening at Documenta@15; three times has been nominated to Kuryohin Prize, was awarded stipends and awards from the Austrian Ministry of Culture and Sport, and by the Federal State of Lower Austria; has released several artist books. Her works are in public and private collections worldwide, mainly in Russia, Germany, France, Finland, and Austria.
Currently, she is pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.
© Julia Lisnyak
EXHIBITIONS (SELECTED)
Solo Exhibitions
2022 – Degrees, Improper Walls Gallery, Vienna, AT
2018 – Spinebone Soup and Stuffed Rabbits, Fotoforum Gallery, Innsbruck, AT
2018 – Habitat vol. 1, Museum of Impossible Forms and HOAS Campus, Helsinki/Vantaa, FI
2017 – Empty Expectations, The Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki, FI
2016 – One or Two Approaches to a Landscape, Listhus Gallery, Ólafsfjörður, IS
Group Exhibitions
2024/25 – UNFOLD, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna, AT
2024 – Remarkable Meetings with Disgusting Men, W139, Amsterdam, NL
2023/24 – Anerkennungspreise des Landes Niederösterreich 2023, NÖDOK, St. Pölten, AT
2023 – Nicht Unser Krieg, Weltkunstzimmer, Düsseldorf, DE
2023 – Immerse!, Tallinn Art Hall, Tallinn, EE
2022 – Trespassing is Inhabitat, FLUC, Vienna, AT
2022 – Fallen wie Kirschblüten, Hidden Museum, Fraxern, AT
2022 – Resolution, FLÜSS, Schloss Wolkersdorf, Wolkersdorf, AT
2022 – Bengali Fire, FLÜSS, Schloss Wolkersdorf, Wolkersdorf, AT
2021 – Photobook Week Aarhus, Godsbanen, Aarhus, DK
2021 – PhotoIreland Festival, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, IE
2021 – Parallel Vienna Editions 21 Fair, Semperdepot, Vienna, AT
2021 – Q&A, Aa-collections, Vienna, AT
2021 – FOR SURE!, Hjalteyri, IS
2020 – Kuryokhin Prize Exhibition, Kuryokhin Centre, St. Petersburg, RU
2020 – Backlight Festival, Tampere, FI
2020 – Shelter Festival–Laboratory (online), Helsinki, FI
2020 – Hold Off: The Time of Fun, Digital Spring Festival, Salzburg, AT
2019 – Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens, GR
2019 – Shelter Festival–Laboratory, Free Arts Space, Helsinki, FI
2019 – Kuryokhin Prize Exhibition, Kuryokhin Centre, St. Petersburg, RU
2019 – You Are What You Eat, Krakow Photo Month, Bunkier Sztuki Gallery, Kraków, PL
2019 – Transeurope Project, transeurope.eu
2019 – Riga Photomonth, Riga, LV
2018 – Barbarians, Mamuta Art & Media Center, Jerusalem, IL
2018 – In-side Out, Center for Book Arts, New York, US
2018 – Shelter Festival, Free Arts Space, Helsinki, FI
2018 – Kuvan Kevät, Project Room Gallery, Helsinki, FI
2018 – Red May, Alkovi Gallery, Helsinki, FI
2018 – Open Museum, Electromuseum, Moscow, RU
2017 – Presence Festival, Berthold Centre, St. Petersburg, RU
2017 – Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens, GR
2017 – Animal Logic, The Exhibition Laboratory, Helsinki, FI
2017 – Photobookfest, Br. Lumiere Centre of Photography, Moscow, RU
2015 – Kolga Tbilisi Photo, Tbilisi, GE
2015 – Grand Prix Fotofestival, OFF Piotrkowska, Łódź, PL
2015 – Athens Photo Festival, Benaki Museum, Athens, GR
2015 – PhotoEspaña Books Festival, Madrid, ES
2015 – The Brownian Motion Experience, Br. Lumiere Centre of Photography, Moscow, RU
2014 – Kolga Tbilisi Photo, Tbilisi, GE
2014 – Openborder Festival, Amsterdam, NL
2014 – Impressed, Loft Taiga, St. Petersburg, RU
2014 – Institute.Production, Kazan, RU
2013 – Young Russian Photographers, RU
2013 – Fotofilmic Festival, Vancouver, CA
2013 – Age of Consent, Etagi, St. Petersburg, RU
Screenings
2025 – Bideodromo Festival, Bilbao, ES
2025 – Gjon Mili International Videoart Festival, Korçë, Dhërmi, AL, New-York, US
2025 – Donaufestival, Kesselhaus, Krems, AT
2025 – Deep Space Experience: Pixel, Bytes + Film, Ars Electronica Deep Space 8K, Linz, AT
2025 – XI NEFILTRAVANAE KINO, Vilnius / Warsaw / Helsinki / Minsk
2024 – Experimental Superstars Festival, Novi Sad, RS
2024 – Lange Nacht der Kultur, Schleswig-Holsteinisches Künstlerhaus e.V., Eckernförde, DE
2024 – Instants Vidéo Numériques et Poétiques, Friche la Belle de Mai, Marseille, FR
2024 – International Human Rights Film Festival Albania, Kinostudio, Tirana, AL
2024 – ALC Videoart Festival, MACA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Alicante, ES
2022 – @DOCUMENTA 15: Non-Human Agents During the War, documenta-Halle, Kassel, DE
2022 – Identity, Pavelhaus, Bad Radkersburg, AT

AWARDS AND GRANTS
2025 – 2nd Prize, Bideodromo Festival, Bilbao, ES
2024 – Best Experimental Documentary, Experimental Superstars Festival, RS
2024 – “Pixel, Bytes + Film” Project Grant, AT
2023 – Award of Recognition for Media Art, State of Lower Austria, AT
2023 – Salzburg Summer Academy Grant, AT
2020 – Bundeskanzleramt Startstipendium, AT
2020 – Stipendium des Landes Niederösterreich, AT
2020 – Kone Residency, FI
2020 – Kuryokhin Prize Shortlist, RU
2020 – PCF Stipendium, NL
2019 – Helsinki City Project Grant, FI
2019 – Kuryokhin Prize Shortlist, RU
2019 – TAIKE Project Grant, FI
2019 – Finnish Cultural Foundation Grant, FI
2018 – TAIKE Mobility Grant, FI
2018 – AIR–Artist in Residence Krems, AT
2018 – KUNO Express Mobility Programme, EU
2017 – STEP Grant, NL
2017 – Russian Photounion Prize, RU
2017 – Photobookfest Shortlist, Moscow, RU
2017 – UNIARTS Grant, FI
2016 – Russian Photounion Prize, RU
2016 – Dummy Award Kassel Shortlist, DE
2015 – Skammdegi Artist-in-Residence Prize, IS
2014 – Gomma Photography Grant, UK
2013 – Russian Photounion Prize, RU
2013 – Kuryokhin Prize Shortlist, RU
ARTIST BOOKS
2018 – In Der Ecke, private publishing, 88 pages
2018 – Spinebone Soup and Stuffed Rabbits, private publishing, 94 pages
2016 – Roads Closed, private publishing, 70 pages
2015 – Empty Expectations, private publishing, 140 pages
2014 – Letters for Two, and No-One Else, Dostoevsky Publishing, 162 pages
MONOGRAPH
2018 – Food as Structural Unit of Politics, Transmitter of Memory, and Matter of Art, print book, 60 pages
LECTURES AND TALKS
2024 – Art and Justice: Making Justice Beyond the Juridical, conference at AMU/FAMU, Prague, CZ
2024 – Weak Strategies or Strategies of the Weak, lecture-performance within the framework of the Artistic Research PhD Programme presentations, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Vienna, AT
2022 – Peace Culture, panel talk, FLUC, Vienna, AT
2022 – Bodies in Resonance, artist talk, Improper Walls Gallery, Vienna, AT
2021 – Anti-Conference PoleTelo: The Field of Corporeality, St. Petersburg, RU
2021 – Reading Group with Corina Apostol, within the framework of the PhotoIreland Festival, Rathfarnham Castle, Dublin, IE
2020 – Taboo–Transgression–Transcendence in Art & Science Conference 2020, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, AT
2020 – Hidden Affects, lecture-performance for Fotodepartament and Tochka.Art Magazine, St. Petersburg, RU
2017 – Public talk during Suomi Art Fair, Helsinki, FI
2016 – Invited portfolio reviewer and lecturer, Photo Parade Festival, Uglich, RU
PUBLICATIONS (THEORY)
Yurkova, Ksenia. 2024. “Weak Strategies or the Strategies of the Weak.” Envelope. Vienna: Publication of the PhD in Art Programme at the University of Applied Arts Vienna.
Apostol, Corina. 2023. “Ravenous: Consumption as Political Act in Ksenia Yurkova’s Writing.” In Julia Gelezova (ed.), Bite the Hand That Feeds You. Dublin: PhotoIreland, pp. 72–79. ISBN 978-1-9997394-23.
Yurkova, Ksenia. 2022. “Liminality of Incorporation.” In Dalila Honorato, Ingeborg Reichle, María Antonia González Valerio, and Andreas Giannakoulopoulos (eds.), Taboo–Transgression–Transcendence in Art & Science 2020. Corfu: Ionian University Publications, pp. 406–417. ISBN 978-960-7260-70-3.
PUBLICATIONS (THEORY) (continued)
Sternfeld, Nora. 2021. “The Afterlife of Violence: Ksenia Yurkova’s Poetic and Political Strategies for What Is Announced by the Affects of the World Within the Body.” Vienna: Akademie der bildenden Künste Wien.
Špeirokaitė, Justina. 2021. “Improper Dose #10: Interview with Ksenia Yurkova.” Improper Dose, February 28.
Apostol, Corina L., Ksenia Yurkova, and Anastasia Vepreva. 2019. “Taking Shelter: A Conversation.” Idea. Arta + Societate, no. 54.
PUBLICATIONS (ARTWORKS)
2021 – VAI (Visual Artists Ireland), November
2021 – Aesthetica Magazine, Issue 101, July
2021 – Der Greif, July
2021 – metalmagazine.eu, May
2019 – Landscape Stories Magazine, no. 30
2019 – Transeuropephoto Magazine
2018 – YLE.fi, May
2018 – The Moscow Times, March 8
2017 – Colta.ru, September 20
2017 – The Village, October 6
2017 – The Calvert Journal, January 11
2016 – GUP Magazine, no. 48, February
2016 – The Calvert Journal, October 14
2015 – The Calvert Journal, March 2
2015 – Colta.ru, January 21
2015 – GUP Magazine, January 28
2015 – DOC! Photo Magazine, no. 31, January, pp. 58–63
2015 – PhosMag, November 5
2015 – Witty Magazine, no. 5
2015 – Kommersant.Weekend, March 5, p. 56
2015 – Discovery, November 14
2015 – Prism Magazine, no. 22, November 26, cover + pp. 46–59
2015 – Musée Magazine, no. 13, November 20, p. 368
2014–2015 – Photographer.ru
2015–2016 – Aroundart.org
2014 – The Calvert Journal, June 13
2014 – The Guardian, June 16
2014 – LensCulture
2013 – Archivo Zine
2013 – Resource Magazine, October 16
2013 – OSE
EDUCATION
2023–present – PhD-in-Practice, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Vienna, AT
2016–2018 – MFA in Time and Space Arts, Academy of Fine Arts, University of the Arts Helsinki, Helsinki, FI
2013–2015 – Fotodepartament.Institute, St. Petersburg, RU
2008–2010 – Postgraduate Studies, Theory of Communications Department, Faculty of Journalism, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, RU
2002–2008 – Diplom (Hons), Visual Journalism Department, Faculty of Journalism, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, RU
RESIDENCIES & TRAINING
2026 – Saari Residence (Kone Foundation), Mynämäki, FI
2024 – otte1 – Schleswig-Holsteinisches Künstlerhaus e.V., Eckernförde, DE
2023 – Salzburg Summer Academy, course with Maria Bussmann, Salzburg, AT
2022 – Workshop Resolution with Gerald Nestler, FLÜSS, Wolkersdorf, AT
2020–2021 – Mentorship Programme with Anne Faucheret, Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, AT
2018–2019 – AIR–Artist-in-Residence Niederösterreich, Krems, AT
2018 – Transeurope Project, Selected Artist, EU
2017–2019 – Mentorship Programme, UNIARTS, with Angela Rosenberg and Pilvi Takala, Helsinki, FI
2018 – Cassis AIR, Cassis, FR
2017 – Somos Arts Residency, Berlin, DE
2017 – UNIARTS Residency, Berlin, DE
2015–2016 – Artist-in-Residence (Skammdegi Awards), Listhus, Ólafsfjörður, IS
2015 – Portfolio Review, Grand Prix Fotofestival, Łódź, PL
2015 – Portfolio Review, IPPR by Fotodepartament, St. Petersburg, RU
2015 – Portfolio Review, Kaunas Photo Festival, Kaunas, LT
2015 – Portfolio Review, The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki, FI
2013–2015 – Studies at Fotodepartament.Institute (Overcoming the Photography – Master course by Nadezhda Sheremetova; Postgraduate Photography – Master course by Nadezhda Sheremetova), St. Petersburg, RU
2013 – Workshop with Jaap Scheeren, St. Petersburg, RU
2012 – Photography Residency, Zarechny, RU
2012 – Portfolio Review, Nordic Photography Experience, St. Petersburg, RU
2011–2012 – Hand-printing studies, St. Petersburg Workshops, St. Petersburg, RU
WORK EXPERIENCE
2020–present – Founder, Curator, and Artist, AIR InSILo, Hollabrunn, AT
2022–2023 – Coordinator, AR, Helsinki, FI
2020 – Curator, CulturaFest, Helsinki, FI
2018–2020 – Founder, Curator, and Organiser, Suoja / Shelter Festival–Laboratory Vol. 1–3, Helsinki, FI
2018 – Internship, FLÜSS – Society for the Promotion of Photo and Media Art, Wolkersdorf, AT
2017 – Internship, Aalto Pavilion, Venice Biennale, Venice, IT
2014–2016 – Freelance Organiser of Cultural Events (in collaboration with Fotodepartament), St. Petersburg, RU
2014–2016 – Art Critic and Journalist, Photographer.ru and Aroundart.com, Moscow, RU
2014–2016 – Educator, Department of the Arts, St. Petersburg State University, St. Petersburg, RU
2011–2020 – Documentary and Reportage Photographer, St. Petersburg, RU / Helsinki, FI / Vienna, AT
2012–2013 – Exhibition Director and Curator, Tkachi Exhibition Space, St. Petersburg, RU