Ksena Ili

Russian based video artist, a painter and a performance practitioner. Ksenia graduated with a BA in Textile design at The Saint Petersburg Stieglitz State Academy of Art and Design in 2017, and she finished the Video Art course at The Rodchenko Moscow School of Photography and Multimedia in 2021.

Q: WHAT WAS YOUR ROUTE TO YOUR CURRENT ARTISTIC PRACTICE?

I tremendously guard spontaneity and the state of eternal seeking. That’s how I became an artist in the first place.

It seems like I have always experienced a special sensitivity to the relativity of things, it has always been important to me to question spaces, to unpuzzle their hints, to spy on reality. I ask myself deceptively simple questions that lead to continuous creative experimentation.

Q: CAN YOU IDENTIFY ANY ELEMENTS OF YOUR COMMUNITY OR COLLABORATORS THAT HAVE HAD A STRONG INFLUENCE?

I interviewed my peers, the 20-30 years olds, thereby defining age as a time marker. We explore our inner world, we have the same vulnerabilities and fears. And our self-awareness is determined by the degree of focus on our own identity.

Q: HOW IS YOUR PROJECT TIED TO THE CIRCA X DAZED CLASS OF 20:21 THEME OF ‘COMMUNION’ ?

There’s one question that bonds us together: what are we? What do we consist of? Of which parts? Single thoughts merged into a mind flow of one person, they endlessly chase that their own self that doesn’t exist in fact.

Q: HOW WOULD THE CIRCA PRIZE OF £30,000 IMPACT YOUR FUTURE PRACTICE?

I would like to immerse myself into a research-oriented learning environment, where one can grow in their practice of reflective Art, where social, cultural and artistic points of view are openly discussed nonjudgmentally. This kind of interaction would be very beneficial for my work as I will develop further my individual research into confident practice and will be able to communicate my ideas globally.

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