Stanislava Ovchinnikova is an interdisciplinary artist and curator. Her practice explores trauma, displacement, and experiences of conflict through a wide range of mediums which include, but are not limited to, photography, performance, and writing. Curatorial work serves as a further means for her to expand on the questions that she addresses artistically.
Her recent solo exhibition, “Suspension in Other Terms” (2025), examined the influence of institutional architecture on the daily life of refugees in Finland. Meanwhile, her latest curatorial project, “Ukraine (working title),” considered the role of media representation of violence in the Russian war against Ukraine. Between 2023 and 2025, she also worked as a guest curator in the Ukrainian archive of wartime dance films “Let The Body Speak.”
During the last few years, Ovchinnikova has remained outside of Ukraine, engaging almost exclusively with English-speaking audiences in the EU. This led her to develop a two-directional or “borderline,” in the words of Nuit Banai (“Being a Border,” 2021)—position, which informs her methodological commitment to inhabiting contradictions instead of resolving them. Her work operates through the principle of sustained complexity and the belief that meaningful cultural engagement stems from prolonged attention to sociopolitical processes and a deliberate refusal of oversimplification.
Visit Stanislava’s website here
Autumn 2026
Curatorial / Literature / Multidisciplinary Practice / Performance / Visual Arts
Research Focus
Stanislava Ovchinnikova’s practice operates in a liminal space: at geographical distance, but epistemic proximity to Ukraine. Through this position she often finds herself set to narrate contemporary Ukrainian realities abroad. This drives Ovchinnikova’s interest and makes her question: by which technologies and processes do displaced individuals maintain and (re)construct connections to their unreachable homelands? If our personal memories of these places come from the “peaceful” times, how do they (not) shift when confronted with the mediated representations of the (perhaps more violent) conditions of the present?
More about the Dwell Here Residency
Dwell Here offers participants a simple proposition: to commit to this time and place while thinking deeply about its urgencies. Together we are curious to learn what can be activated or challenged through the process of dwelling. IMMA encourages reflection across the following themes to consider geographical, historical, political and cultural concepts of Ireland as a starting point to expand and connect international contexts through similarities and differences:
Technologies of Peace – to consider commemorative landscapes and memories of peace (as a dream, movement, or value) while generating perspectives on sustainable coexistence.
The Irish Paradigm – Welcomes artistic research that creates intimacy and connections, while celebrating the perceived agility and freedoms of operating on the periphery. As a small island on the edge of Europe, Ireland often has a challenging relationship with ‘the centre’.
The Museum as a Site of Vibration – consider how the museum and site can create new vibrations and rhythms within the built legacy of empire. How can museums make visible cultural shifts, including erased, censored or marginalised histories, as well as sustainability, planetary care, sharing and hospitality.