Sveta Mordovskaya, *1989 in Ulan-Ude, USSR, lives and works in Zurich
EDUCATION 2017 - 2021 2013 - 2016
Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, Diploma of Excellence (Class of Heimo Zobernig) BA Photography ZHdK, Zurich, Diploma of Excellence
SOLO AND TWO-PERSON EXHIBITIONS 2022 2021 2020 2018 2017
Assholes, Kunstverein Kevin Space, Vienna Galerie Weiss Falk, Zurich (solo, upcoming) A Set-up, Alienze, Lausanne/Vienna (with Lucie Pia) Home just a minute from the streets, On Curating, Zurich (with Paula Henrike Herrmann) Complex Doll, Weiss Falk, Basel (solo) Monuments, Cherish, Geneva (solo) Suckly Eye, Weiss Falk, Basel (solo) Gravidan, Plymouth Rock, Zurich (solo)
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS 2022
2021
2020 2019
Dortmunder Kunstverein (upcoming) Swiss Art Awards | Göhner Art Prize 2022, Basel Watercolors Chapter II, Weiss Falk Zürich <Group Show>, 7Knoppers9, Essen Der Radwechsel, Heiligenkreuzer Hof, Vienna Befindlichkeiten, Österreichisches Kulturforum Berlin Phantasmatic Riff, Vienna In Every Dream Home a Heartache, Little, Bern Our Vampires, Sperling, Munich Stoffe im Raum, Heiligenkreuzer Hof, Vienna Superamas, C L E A R I N G, Brussels Haus 2021, Vienna Hope Springs Eternal, Second Nature Design Projects, Zurich Light at Eight, Loggia, Vienna TGC, curated by XYZ Collective, Weiss Falk, Basel The Estate, Kim?, Contemporary Art Centre, Riga A Home is not a House, Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg A House is not a Home, Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg
2018
2017 2016 2015
Goodbye Plastic, Longtang, Zürich LISTE Art Fair Basel 2019, with Weiss Falk, Basel Kiefer Hablitzel | Göhner Art Prize 2019, Pasquart, Biel in 2019 Kiefer Hablitzel | Göhner Art Prize 2019, Basel Sammlungen des Glarner Kunstvereins, Kunsthaus Glarus Lampen, Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich Readymades belong to Everyone, Swiss Institute, New York LISTE Art Fair Basel 2018, with Weiss Falk, Basel Kiefer Hablitzel | Göhner Art Prize 2018, Basel Wasteland Pavillon, Zurich A Winter School, Plattform17 Helvetia Kunstpreis, Kunsthaus Glarus, Glarus Chalky Soil & The Unexpected Bugs, Art Accomodation, Vrasna Dilly, RETO 01, Zurich The Ardent V, UP STATE, Zurich Imperial Line, Kunstraum Toni Areal, Zurich Koryu, Yukobo Art Space, Tokyo Exposition potentielle, Perception Park Gallery, Paris
RESIDENCIES, AWARDS & GRANTS 2022 2020 2019 2019 2018 2017
Swiss Arts Awards (nominated) Kulturfonds Pro Arte/Gleyre (3000.-) Kiefer Hablitzel | Göhner Art Prize 2019 (15.000.-) Premio Matteo Olivero (nominated) Kiefer Hablitzel | Göhner Art Prize 2018 (nominated) Helvetia Kunstpreis (nominated)
PRINTED PRESS 2020 2019
Sylvain Menétrey on “Monuments” by Sveta Mordovskaya at Cherish, Geneva (Flash Art, Summer 2020) Maja Naef on „Suckly Eye“ by Sveta Mordovskaya at Weiss Falk, Basel (ARTFORUM, Winter 2019)
Beginner, Beginner, Beginner, Asshole 2022 Straw, acrylic paint, mirror, marker Installation view Swiss Art Awards Göhner Art Prize 2022, Basel Photo: BAK, Guadalupe Ruiz
Assholes 2022 Installation view Kunstverein Kevin Space, Vienna
Assholes 2022 Installation view Kunstverein Kevin Space, Vienna
Assholes 2022 Installation view Kunstverein Kevin Space, Vienna
Untitled (Diploma Sculpture) 2021 Installation view Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
Untitled (Diploma Sculpture) 2021 Installation view Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
I remember that magical moment When before me you appeared Like a fleeting vision, Like a spirit beautiful and pure «K***» by A. Pushkin, 1825 Until the age of 9, me and my family - mother, dad and sister - lived together in one room. Thinking about our room, that old soviet red-brown wardrobe appears in my memory. I was attached to that space-object with the creaking door, as it was the only place where you could be alone and where there was a mirror. I believed that this wardrobe was connected to other worlds and I went inside it to call spirits, as for that operation you had to be alone and look straight into the mirror. In the darkness I whispered „Pushkin, appear!“ (I only remember caling Pushkin again and again as it was the only dead person I knew). I sat sunken for many hours in that soft space full of pillows and dresses from India. Once, by accident, I found in that mess of objects my first snickers chocolate bar that was supposed to be eaten on my sister’s birtday. It was the time when stuff from the West came to Siberia. It was then that I discovered new categories of things that I didn’t know before. And also where I sensed that categories can be violent. Everything from the west was hidden by my mother somewhere in the wardrobe’s limbo. If I worked hard and learned a poem of Pushkin by heart, an object from the Western fairy suddenly appeared. That time in our small room felt like living in a nest. A dictionary description of „nest“ that I like is: „put one part between the other parts“ or „insert one part between others“. Thinking of it like that, the nest perhaps never attains totality. But for this reason its poetics can always accommodate difference, which gives it its strength. In this context, deficit becomes a shiny word. (Text written in the occasion of diploma work)
Untitled (Diploma work) 2021 Installation view Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
left: Untitled (Diploma work) 2021 Installation view right: Comrade Mom (detail) 2021 Cardboard, found object, latex Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
My sadistic child (detail) 2021 Cardboard, gift foil, found object, paint Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
left: Home just a minute from the streets (with Paula Henrike Herrmann) My first spirit 2021 Straw, found object 105 x 115 x 20 On Curating, Zurich right: Haus Wien 2021 A Tomb for Summer 2021 2021 Straw Dimensions variable Haus Wien, Vienna
Home just a minute from the streets (with Paula Henrike Herrmann) Rehearsal 2021 Straw, feather 170 x 160 x 45 On Curating, Zurich
Complex Doll MOM 2020 Gift foils Dimensions variable Weiss Falk, Basel Photo: Flavio Karrer
Complex Doll Condition 2 2020 Glazed ceramic 43 × 36 × 7 cm Condition 6 2020 Glazed ceramic and found objects 57 × 18 × 11 cm Weiss Falk, Basel Photo: Flavio Karrer
MONUMENTS Installation view Cherish, Geneva Photo: Nathalie Rebholz
MONUMENTS Monument III 2020 Straw, pvc sheet Dimensions variable Cherish, Geneva Photo: Nathalie Rebholz
TGC Meret 2020 Ceramics, found objects 35 × 43 × 9 cm I love tit! 2020 Ceramics, found objects 30 × 42 × 10 cm Punks on Mars 2020 Ceramics, found objects 35 × 40 × 11 cm Bioconversion, frontal method 2020 Ceramics, found objects 32 × 49 × 11 cm Weiss Falk, Basel Photo: Flavio Karrer
LISTE 2019 Scanner I-III 2019 Foil and found objects 28 × 30 × 30 cm 32 × 36,5 × 24 cm 36,5 × 30 × 24 cm LISTE Art Fair, Basel Photo: Flavio Karrer
LISTE 2019 Sveta Mordovskaya Mirror Glazed Bones 2019 Glazed ceramics 10 × 40 × 40 cm LISTE Art Fair, Basel Photos: Flavio Karrer
Suckly Eye Installation view Weiss Falk, Basel Photo: Flavio Karrer