Nastia will have her residency in August. She will show her visual work during Vruchtbare Grond from September 19-28!
What’s your background?
I always thought that moving to another country would make background become vague. However, for me, it became a point to fuller discover it, while being far from home. And I’m not just talking about the background of my home country, Russia, but also about the background of being a sister and a daughter to my family; spending much time in a small local theater as a kid and living in the countryside with its bumpy roads; knocking on the wood to avoid jinxing and never letting myself swear in Russian, knowing that bread with butter and honey is the best homemade dessert, yet always wondering whether worms have eyes. I think of my background as an interconnection of different ideas and belongings, linked to both past and future.
How does your work comment on current social or political issues?
Having moved abroad in 2021, I rediscovered my Russian identity once again. I had always been a Russian girl in Russia, but I had never experienced being a Russian girl abroad. I’ve learned a lot from this, including how to unlearn things. Since Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, I’ve tried various ways of reflecting on it and discussing it with people who are both closely and distantly related to the context. And I’m still in the process of exploring this, while recognizing that the context of the war became a part of my own identity. In my recent work, “Birds are singing of salvation”, I discuss the dictatorial regime and the war through the lens of family dynamics. This perspective includes both relationships within a single family and the family as broader socio-political unit. The project explores how the personal echoes political, and how these realities constantly reflect on each other, even in the most intimate moments.
How do you manage a work-life balance as an artist?
I don’t. I don’t believe in work-life balance for myself because I’m not trying to draw a line between the two. For me, being an artist is more important as a state of thinking or seeing things. This way, I wanna be an artist more regularly than 5/2. And I think one of my biggest professional goals is to be an artist outside of a studio space.