Uliyana Podkorytova (b.1984, Bryansk) is a Moscow-based artist working with video, vocal performance, painting, and sculpture. Her art practice is based on the inner mythology, the folklore of the Russian North, and post-folklore. A Rodchenko Art School graduate, Podkorytova explores the loss of identity in the era of globalisation and the issue of collective memory.
Recommended by Elena Anosova and Snejana Krasteva
Let Be What Cannot Be, 2020. Photo series for the Dialogue of Arts magazine of Moscow Museum of Modern Art. In this series, the artist works with inner mythology based on scary fairy tales of the Arkhangelsk region. Photo: Pavel Smirnov
Let Be What Cannot Be, 2020. Photo series for the Dialogue of Arts magazine of Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Pavel Smirnov
Let Be What Cannot Be, 2020. Photo series for the Dialogue of Arts magazine of Moscow Museum of Modern Art. Photo: Pavel Smirnov
Stranger, 2019. Photo object for the solo show Rai’ok, Triumph gallery, Moscow. The title of the exhibition is a play on the words raiok (“little paradise” in Russian) and ok. Photo: Maksim Medvedev
Birch She-Wolf, 2019. From the show Rai’ok, Triumph gallery, Moscow. The project was built around a video opera, where characters from Northern Russian folklore sang lyrics composed of Instagram and Facebook messages. Photo courtesy of the Triumph gallery
Still from the Trap video, 2016
From the Gertrude Rude graphic series, 2020. Comic series about a Russian Wonder Woman who performs incredible feats with the help of a 10-metre braid, gloves made of birch bark, and the power of her scream
From the Gertrude Rude graphic series, 2020
From the Gertrude Rude graphic series, 2020
Zarni An’, 2021. The artist transforms into a mythical creature of the Golden Woman, or Zarni An’ in Komi language. The legends of the Golden Baba spread from Scandinavian to the Altay region. Commissioned by the 1st Komi biennial. Photo: Pavel Smirnov
From the set of Tamotka. This film is set on the coast of the White Sea—an area where climate change makes locals leave, and where permafrost coexists with sandstorms. Commissioned by the VAC Foundation. Photo: Pavel Smirnov
Armour of Planks, 2021. The armour of planks reminiscent of lemekh (traditional element of Russian architecture, similar to tiles) looks impressive but cannot protect from environmental disasters that happen in the region. Photo: Pavel Smirnov
Still from Tamotka, 2021. The film’s title means “somewhere” in the northern Pomor dialect. The work is built around an intricate meditative narrative. DP: Maksim Pechersky
Still from Tamotka, 2021. The film is inspired both by fairytales of the Russian nortand internet-folklore. DP: Maksim Pechersky
Still from Tamotka, 2021. Through focusing on this particular region, the film explores the global environmental crisis. DP: Maksim Pechersky
Still from Autograph Blackie, 2021. In this film, a mythical creature becomes a metaphor for the political conflict of two states, detrimental to nature
Still from Autograph Blackie, 2021
