NEW IN TOWN
-by Justina Speirokaite (curator at Improper Walls)
Artists from Ukraine who recently arrived in Vienna
Zoya Laktionova
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. She made her first short documentary, Diorama (12’), about the mined sea in the Mariupol area a year later. The film won an award in the MyStreetFilms category at the 86 festival (Ukraine) in 2018 and 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. She showed it in cinemas at Molodist IFF in Kyiv and received a special award from Ji.Hlava festival at the Obirok 2021 festival and the main award at the documentary competition of the French-Ukrainian festival MIST 2021. The international premiere was held at MakeDoxIFF, North Macedonia. Before Russia started a full-scale war 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.
Anastasya Ermolaieva
Commercial Photographer / Art Director
