Laktionova
Biography
Zoya Laktionova was born in Mariupol, in a working class family in 1984. Zoya first appeared in the world of documentary cinema as a character in the film "Ma"(10’) in 2017, and a year later made her first short documentary "Diorama" (12’ https://www.dok-leipzig.de/en/film/20182188/diorama) about the mined sea at the Mariupol area. The film won an award in the MyStreetFilms category at the “86” festival (Ukraine) in 2018, has participated in numerous European film festivals (DOKLeipzig, Ji.Hlava, Cottbus etc), and was released in cinemas in Ukraine in 2019. In 2021, Zoya premiered her new short "Territory of Empty Windows" (10’) at DocudaysUA International Human Rights DFF, and showed it in cinemas at Molodist IFF in Kyiv, received a special award from the Ji.Hlava festival at the Obirok 2021 festival and the main award at the documentary competition of the French-Ukrainian festival MIST 2021. International premiere was held at MakeDoxIFF, North Macedonia.
Before the start of a full-scale war of Russia against Ukraine (24/02/22), Zoya lived in Kyiv and worked as an independent artist and documentary filmmaker. She works with themes of war, memory and personal stories.
Artist's statement
My art practice belongs to two disciplines—documentary filmmaking and contemporary art. Through my films, I aim to convey emotions using art metaphors intertwined with the cinematic drama language. This often makes it hard to find an unequivocal place for my films, which is why they are screened both at film festivals as well as at art museums and art galleries. In my practice, I adopt micro-history, auto-ethnography, and creative storytelling to unfold the complexities of greater events and historical context. In my short films, I build a human-to-human language that doesn’t use complex political terms and is clear to the majority of the living. Even though my stories often touch on the complexity of the influencing macro powers of existence, I believe that the micro-stories of the human experience, and especially for me now—the human experience of war—need to be told. For a human to feel the other human being behind the big abstract categories like politics, history, economics, or social theory.
Educational background/ labs
2022 - IDFAcademy, Amsterdam (Netherlands)
2022 - Salzburg Summer Academy, Fragility and Resilience: Queering Strategies Revisited, Salzburg, (Austria)
2022 - goEast - "EAST-WEST TALENT LAB". Wiesbaden, Germany
2019 - Documentary Storyteling with personal voice (Moldova), B2BDOC - workshop
2019 - The Sergey Bukovsky Film Program (Ukraine) - documentary filmmaking course
2018 - MyStreetFilms (Ukraine) - documentary filmmaking program
2018 - Ji.Hlava Academy (Czech) - documentary filmmaking workshop
Awards
2023-24 - Civitella Visual Arts Fellow (Italy)
2022-23 - Harriman Residencies in Paris - Columbia University | Institute for Ideas & Imagination, Paris (France)
2021 - nominated top-10 young Ukrainian artists "MUHi"
2021 - best short documentary "Territory of empty windows" , french-ukrainian international film festival "MICT"
2021 - special mention for "Territory of empty windows", "Obyrok" International film festival (Ukraine)
2018 - best short documentary "Diorama", "86" International film festival (Ukraine)
Selected film festivals
2022 - FIDMarseille, Marseille (France)
2022 - goEast - Wiesbaden (Germany)
2022 - Vienna Shorts (Austria)
2022 - Encounters Film Festival, Bristol (UK)
2022 - Kutaisi International Short Film Festival (Georgia)
2022 - UKRAЇNA! Festival filmowy, Warsaw (Poland)
2022 - Filma. Feminist Film Festival (Ukraine)
2022 - Wiz-Art Lviv International Short Film Festival (Ukraine)
2021 - MakeDox Creative Documentary Film Festival, Skopje, (North Macedonia)
2021 - Docudays UA, Kyiv (Ukraine)
2021 - WIZ-ART LISFF, Lviv (Ukraine)
2021 - Molodist Kyiv International Film Festival (Ukraine)
2019 - IceDoc (Iceland)
2019 - Bamberger Kurzfilmtage (Germany)
2019 - Uppsala film festival 2019 (Sweden)
2018 - DOK Leipzig (Germany) - International Competition Short Film
2018 - Ji.hlava IDFF (Czech)
2018 - Cottbus FilmFestival (Germany)
Residences
2023-24 - Civitella Visual Arts Fellow (Italy)
2022-23 - Harriman Residencies in Paris - Columbia University | Institute for Ideas & Imagination, Paris (France)
2022 - steirischer herbst, Graz (Austria)
2022 - VILLA MÜLLER, Feldkirch (Austria)
2022 - CeRCCa, (Spain)
2021 - Grounding IZOLYATSIA, Soledar (Ukraine)
2021 - TBCK forward residency program for female documentarians, Kosice (Slovakia)
Solo Exhibition
2022-23 - Zoya Laktionova: Remember the Smell of Mariupol, Jozef Kollár Gallery, Banská Štiavnica (Slovakia)
Exhibitions
2023 -The International Coalition of cultural workers in solidarity with Ukraine, Dymchuk Gallery, Kyiv (Ukraine)
2022-2023 - L'ami intérieur - Palais de Tokyo, Paris (France)
2022 - Documenta Fifteen - Documenta Halle, Kassel (Germany)
2022 - "Chain Reaction", MAXXI - Museo nazionale delle arti del XXI secolo, Rome (Italy)
2022 - "Chain Reaction", Kunsthalle Bratislava (Slovakia)
2022 - "Film of emergency/ Ukraine experimental film and video art", National Gallery, Sofia (Bulgaria)
2022 - 5th floor - the digital platform of the Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, online (Switzerland)
2022 - To Watch the War –The Moving Image Amidst the Invasion of Ukraine (2014–2022) - Coalmine (Winterthur, Switzerland)
2022 - "Sweet Dreams Foundation", Nida Art Colony of the Vilnius Academy of Arts (Lithuania)
2022 - "Sweet Dreams Foundation", Kaunas Picture Gallery, Kaunas (Lithuania)
2022 - "Film of Emergency – Ukrainischer Experimentalfilm und Videokunst", Kunstraum München (Germany)
2022 - "Preserving the shape", Galerie Raum mit Licht, Vienna (Austria)
2022 - "Home and Abroad: Central Europe Cinema", Olomouc Museum Of Art, (Czech)
2022 - "A War in the Distance. Prologue. An Embattled Ukraine in Video Art and Film", Neue Galerie Graz (Austria)
2022 - Gmunden.photo 2022, Gmunden (Austria)
2022 - Ukrainian-Georgian Contemporary Art Exhibition "Tomorrow", Literature Museum, Tbilisi (Georgia)
2022 - "Give Me Tomorrow", Corner of Conceptica, Lisbon (Portugal)
2021 - Exhibition by participants in the Grounding residency series , IZONE, Kyiv (Ukraine)
2021 - MUHi Exhibition of the finalists of the competition of young Ukrainian artists, M17 galery, Kyiv (Ukraine)
2020 - #bruederschaft with “Territory of empty windows” short film (10’), hybrid offline (KINO42) and online, Kyiv (Ukraine)
2018 - photo project "Trees". AkT space, Kyiv (Ukraine)
Publications/ Catalogs
2022 - Cineuropa - Takflix launches "Mariupol, I Love You" collection
2022 - Block magazine - ‘Preserving the Shape’ at Galerie Raum mit Licht, Vienna curated by Olena Newkryta and Anastasiya Yarovenko
2022 - Artribune - Chain Reaction, al MAXXI la rassegna sulla videoarte ucraina
2022 - Echo gone wrong - Lucid Dreaming at the Nida Art Colony
2022 - A conversation with Zoya Laktionova - ON MARIUPOL, MEMORY AND LIFE IN TWO REALITIES
2022 - exibart - Videoarte dall’Ucraina al Maxxi: Chain Reaction, con un’intervista ai curatori
2022 - Radio Svoboda, interview - Інтимна документалістика Зої Лактіонової
2022 - Bird in flight - У Болгарії презентують проєкт «Галерея у вікні», присвячений роботам українських художників
2022 - Културни новини - Зоя Лактионова / "Where to go? Where to go?"
2021 - Interview - "«ТЕРИТОРІЯ ПУСТИХ ВІКОН»: РЕЖИСЕРКА ЗОЯ ЛАКТІОНОВА ПРО СВІЙ НОВИЙ ФІЛЬМ"
2021 - MUHi 2009-2021, exhibition catalogue. Language: ukrainian.
Selected screenings:
2023 - Remember the Smell of Mariupol - Oldenburgisches Staatsteater (Germany)
2022 - What drives us - Centre Pompidou, Paris (France)
2022 - Cité internationale des arts, Paris (France)
2022 - My childhood is in the city that no longer exists -Barcelona, (Spain)
2022 - Microscope Gallery, New York (USA)
Workshops
2021 - Documentary storytelling - workshop for LGBT-teenagers in Mariupol, Platforma TU (Ukraine)
2020 - Cinematography of a motion workshop, Kyiv (Ukraine)