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Their practice traces how narratives emerge and circulate over time, examining their inscription into memories, infrastructures, and landscapes. Through speculative documentary, Kolesova reveals the cyclical relationship between narratives and histories of control, exploring how these cycles might be disrupted.
Their work has been presented at Kunstpavillon Innsbruck (AT), Fotogalerie Wien (AT), HIAP (FI), Fotograf Festival (CZ), Kunstraum Kreuzberg (DE), nGbK (DE), EMOP Berlin (DE), HYBRID Biennale in Dresden (DE), Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden (DE), and the Museum für Fotografie in Berlin (DE).
Beneath my artistic approach lies my personal experience of the Soviet Union's collapse and its aftermath. I reflect on socio-historical dynamics, such as the role of social media in military conflicts, state violence, technologies of propaganda, manipulation of collective memories, and the formation of national narratives. I am keen on understanding how these dynamics interrelate and influence our perception of "true" and "false." Although I escaped the traps of a manipulated past and present, its remnants linger in my personality and compel me to meticulously deconstruct their influence.
Intrigued by the multiplicity of realities, I believe that the personal and political, as well as the personal and collective, are inherently intertwined. In my works, I seek out gaps demonstrating that diverse perceptions, experiences, and memories can coexist and serve as a tool to demythologize manipulative narratives pushing for "unity."
2024
2017—2023
University of Arts Berlin, DE
Masterschüler of Fine Arts (MFA+BFA)
Experimental Film and New Media Class of Prof. Hito Steyerl
2020
CalArts, US
Visiting Student
Interactive Media for Performance
2010—2013
St.P. State University of Culture and Arts, RU
Studies in Film Directing and Video
2005—2009
State Social University, RU
Bachelor in Social Psychology
Awards, Grants, Residencies (selection)
2025—2027 Karl Schmidt-Rottluff Scholarship, DE
2025—2026 Künstler*innenhaus Büchsenhausen Fellowship and Residency, AT
2025 Helsinki International Artist Program HIAP, FI
2025 Schloss Wiepersdorf Fellowship and Residency, DE
2025 Sensing Peat Research Residency, DE
2024 Kunstfonds Bonn Scholarship, DE
2024 Goldrausch Artist Program, DE
2023 Karl Hofer Scholarship, DE
2022 nGbK Collective Project Grant, DE
Group Exhibitions (selection)
2026 (upcoming) Landscapes of Unrest: Bodies, Memories, Revolt, Kunstpavillon, Innsbruck, AT 2025 Topographies of Memory, Fotogalerie Wien, Vienna, AT
2025 HIAP Open Studios, Suomenlinna, Helsinki, FI
2025 Limbo, De Proef, Drenthe, NL
2025 The Desire of Being Many, Neun Kelche, Berlin, DE
2024 Make Voices Be Heard, Fotograf Festival, Prague, CZ
2024 I only work with lost and found, Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE
2023 Cultures of Remembrance, Museum des Kapitalismus, Berlin, DE
2023 ӨМƏ, nGbK with Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE
2023 Narbe//Scar, aka disthene, EMOP Berlin, DE
2022 HYBRID Biennale, Hellerau, Dresden, DE
2022 Save Changes, Studio Hanniball, Berlin, DE
2021 Conditions of a Necessity, Staatliche Kunsthalle Baden-Baden, DE
2021 Soft Encounters, Floating University, Berlin, DE
2021 nothing ever happened (yet), Museum of Photography, Berlin, DE
2020 CalArts Expo, held online due to covid-19, CalArts, US
Performances
2024 Dissolution, Berliner Ringtheater, DE
2024 Memory and War, Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE
2024 Let's skip it. Let's keep it, Berliner Ringtheater, DE
2023 Memory and War, Museum des Kapitalismus, Berlin, DE
2022 Memory and War, Ballhaus Ost, Berlin, DE
Screenings
2025 RRR Conference, Greifswald, DE
2025 Artspring Festival, Berlin, DE
2023 Documenta fifteen, invitation by Temporary Home, Kassel, DE
2022 4.Verstärker Kunstfilm Festival, Dresden, DE
Publications (selection)
“Witnesses or Resources: On Peat, Laboring Bodies, and Imperial Practice”, by Jeanna Kolesova, online in: Berliner Gazette, 2025
“On Created Worlds and Plotted Routes”, by Jeanna Kolesova aka disthene, online in: Beda Media, 2024
FOTOGRAF Magazine, Vol. 47, Make Voiced Be Heard, Prague 2024, pp.16-17
DOM Magazine, Vol. 17, Narbe, November 2024, Berlin, pp.68
When the past becomes a weapon the future disappears, Catalog, published by Goldrausch Künstler*innenprojekt, Berlin 2024
“War and Myth: The Cult of the Great Patriotic War and the Militarization of Russian Society”, by Jeanna Kolesova, online in: Beda Media, 08/2022
Camera Austria Iternational, Vol. 154, Forum, by Maren Lübbke-Tidow, Graz 2021, pp.61-74
Talks and Presentations (selection)
2026 Desiring the Wetlands. In conversation with Eva Garibaldi, Künstler*innenhaus Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck, AT
2025 Artist Talk, Künstler*innenhaus Büchsenhausen, Innsbruck, AT
2025 Artist Talk, RRR2025 Conference, Greifswald, DE
2025 Workshop Looking, Otherwise: A workshop in perception and landscape, Succow Foundation & FPCR, Aukštumala, LT
2025 Research Presentation In Zombie Fire: Persistence of imperial narratives surrounding peatlands, Hybrid Plattform, BAS, Berlin, DE
2025 Talk Peatland Ecologies of Extraction and Preservation, Memory, and Transformation in the Post-Soviet Sphere, WETBEING Symposium, Succow Foundation & FPCR, DE, LT
2024 Artist talk, Fotograf Festival, Meet Factory, Prague, CZ
2024 Project presentation Narbe, Schlossaneignung Initiative, nGbK, Berlin, DE
2024 Discussion Memory Politics in russia, together with Elena Ishchenko, Kunstraum Kreuzberg, Berlin, DE
2023 Symposium Decolonial reflections on power and racism in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia, together with Keto Gorgadze, Hope Recycling Station, Prague, CZ
2023 Panel discussion Solidarity in the Art Field—More than just a Gesture, nGbK, Berlin, DE