Julia Beliaeva: Fragile City

Julia Beliaeva (b. 1988, Haisyn, Ukraine) strikes a graceful balance between virtuality, physicality, and fragility. In her digitally generated sculptures and videos, she reinterprets the past for our increasingly virtual, media-driven present-day world.

With the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression in February 2022, the multimedia artist fled her hometown of Kiev/Kyiv with her son. In March, the OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH invited her to take part in its residency program and in the newly established Academy of Ceramics Gmunden (AoCG). In the course of her stay, she created at Gmunden Ceramics her most monumental work to date, Fragile City. Objects that at first glance look like tiled stoves recall bombed-out, burned-out houses from the greater Kiev area and tell in their figurative friezes stories of war and flight.

Known for her digital and real figures all in white, Beliaeva has now translated these 3D visualizations into ceramics such as porcelain. She draws on historical models, updating them and placing them in a new context. The fragile nature of the material but also its resilience are emblematic of Julia Beliaeva’s sensitive yet critical engagement with the complex history and identity of her country. The nightmare of war along with all the crises, traumas, and haunting impressions it triggers poses an existential threat, both personally and globally. Remembering and forgetting are processes that constantly remold our memory. How we read Beliaeva’s works thus remains open, and her older pieces resonate even more strongly today after all that has happened.

AoCG Academy of Ceramics Gmunden
Work stays and residencies for artists as well as exhibitions and events are the focus of the AoCG Academy of Ceramics Gmunden. The exchange between one of the oldest ceramic manufacturers in Europe and contemporary artists of international standing promotes the transfer of artistic and technical know-how. Julia Beliaeva was one of the first artists in this program.