From Tchaikovsky to the fall of regimes, Anna Jermolaewa explores the relationship between art and activism, intertwining personal experiences with historical reflections.
Anna Jermolaewa was born in Leningrad in 1970. Since 1989, she has been living as a political refugee in Vienna, after being accused of anti-Soviet propaganda back home. A conceptual artist, Jermolaewa combines installation, video, and photography with a vein of subtle irony. Her contribution at the 2024 Venice Art Biennale is her take on migration and resistance: A Language of Resistance comprises five installations on non-violent resistance, which the artist and activist has been working on for years. Rehearsal for Swan Lake (2024) is a childhood memory of Jermolaewa, back from where the Soviet TV broadcasted Swan Lake at the time of political crisis, unwittingly turning into a signal in its own right. In Research for Sleeping Position, the artist is shown trying to rest on ‘hostile architecture’ benches at a train station in Vienna, where she slept for weeks upon her arrival in Austria.
