Olia Sosnovskaya is an artist, writer and cultural organizer. She engages in performative, visual and textual practices, working between the festive and the political, intertwining collective choreographies, movement scores and post-socialist* temporalities. Part of artistic-research group Problem Collective and Work Hard! Play Hard! working group
born 1988 in Minsk, Belarus. Based in Vienna, Austria
Statement in Secondary archive, platform for women artists from Central and Eastern Europe.
EDUCATION
2018 – current PhD in Practice // Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
2013 – 2015 Master of Arts. Choreomundus - International Master in Dance Knowledge, Practice and Heritage // Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU) Trondheim, Norway; Blaise Pascal University (UBP) Clermont-Ferrand, France; University of Roehampton (URL) London, UK; Scientific University of Szeged (SZTE) Szeged, Hungary
2011 – 2013 Master in Sociology. Sociology, Cultural Studies: Visual and Cultural Studies // European Humanities University (EHU) Vilnius, Lithuania
2007 – 2011 Bachelor in Communications and Information. Media and Communications: Visual and Cultural Studies // European Humanities University (EHU) Vilnius, Lithuania
INFORMAL STUDIES
2017 The Politicality of Contemporary Choreographic Practices, Lublin Culture Center (Lublin, Poland)
2010 – 2012 'Vytis Jankauskas Dance Theater' Contemporary dance studio (Vilnius, Lithuania)
GRANTS AND AWARDS
2024 TQW Scholarship
2023 Kardinal König Kunstpreises nomination for Problem Collective (Olia Sosnovskaya, Aleksei Borisionok, Uladzimir Hramovich, Alesia Zhitkevich)
2020 - 2021 LIVE WORKS Vol.8 Fellowship by Centrale Fies
2018 – 2022 FWF grant for artistic research project 'Politicization of dance and movement practices in the post-socialist contexts' at PhD in Practice, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna
SELECTED SHOWS
2025 'Incredibly relaxing meditation music' , lecture-performance, Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna
2025 Leakage, Breaching, Motley Tongues, group exhibition, Kunstraum Niederoesterreich, Vienna
2024 The Biennale Matter of Art 2024, National Gallery Prague
2024 'Citing sources', performance within 'The Digest' by Pickle Bar & Slavs and Tatars, Kunstraum Memphis x Ars Electromica (Linz)
2024 Archive of Gestures: Becoming In/Visible, performance by Elske Rosenfeld & Olia Sosnovskaya, The Biennale Matter of Art 2024 (Prague) and ACUD MACHT NEU (Berlin)
2024 Lossy notes or typically a presentation has many constraints, duo show with Nina Emge, WAF Galerie (Vienna)
2024 SONIC AGENCY LISTENING SESSION V by Struma+Iodine, WAF Galerie (Vienna)
2024 Pickle Bar presents Slavs and Tatars, group show, West Den Haag (Netherlands)
2024 Archival Sites of Speculation: Storying the Silence, group show (with Elske Rosenfeld), VBKÖ (Vienna)
2023 'Strike Event' within Work Hard! Play Hard! working group, PAF Summer University (France)
2023 'In the Meantime, Midday Comes Around', group show (with Problem Collectve), Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz (Vienna)
2023 'Reading Session' (with Problem Collective), in the framework of “In the Meantime, Midday Comes Around”. Kunsthalle Wien Karlsplatz (Vienna)
2023 'outdoors, gunpowder burns quietly', solo show, Annenstrasse 53 (Graz)
2023 'Autonomy, Rave and the Night', event, Display (Prague)
2023 'Turn up, time of my life, go up in fire', group show. Display (Prague)
2022 'TALAKA: Self-organisation and Solidarity in Belarus' (wih Work Hard Play Hard working group), collective event orgaized by lumbung member ZK/U – Center for Arts and Urbanistic, documenta fifteen, ruruHaus (Kassel)
2022 'burn, on fire, alight, inflamed, glow, ablaze, fervent, go up in smoke', lecture-performance, e-flux (NYC)
2022 Manifesta 14 Prishtina, within Secondary Archive (Kosovo)
2022 'A Forest Marathon. pARTisanka Party', collective event. HAU (Berlin)
2022 'Performing Infrastructures', programme of performances, workshops and installations. ZIRKA (Munich)
2022 Strike Event by Work Hard! Play Hard! working group, Uferstudios GmbH (Berlin)
2022 'DESCHOOL!' group show, with Problem Collectve. Arsenal Gallery (Białystok)
2022 'Exiting the Domestic Factory: A B O L I T I O N', event organized by ULWC, Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw (Warsaw)
2022 'Transition point(s)', group show (with Problem Collectve). Vantaa Art Museum Artsi (Vantaa)
2022 'Artists for Ukraine. Show of Solidarity with Ukraine', screening. MuseumsQuartier (Vienna)
2022 'When red and white ain’t so black and white', group show, curated by Slavs and Tatars Pickle Bar. Sentiment (Zurich)
2022 'Sensory Visions, Micro-Histories', screening, curated by Elena Vogman. ACUD Galerie (Berlin)
2021 'The Method of Reading', solo show and performance by Problem Collective, A Promise of Kneropy Reading room (Bratislava)
2021 'A Careful Strike*' group show (within Problem Collective), Mint (Stockholm)
2021 Allied – Kyiv Biennial 2021. 'To Whom It May Concern' film program. House of Cinema (Kyiv)
2021 'ODKSZTAŁCENIE / ДЭФАРМАЦЫЯ / UNLEARNING' group show. Domie (Poznań)
2021 'HOW TO BREATHE IN PUBLIC?' with ELOLSOPERU (Eliana Otta, Olia Sosnovskaya, Sonja Hornung, Petra Mra, Ruthia Jenrbekova), Fluc (Vienna)
2021 'Practicing Revolution', short Film Programme. Haus der Statistik (Berlin)
2021 'LIVE WORKS SUMMIT 2021'. Centrale Fies (Dro).
2021 'Every Day. Art. Solidarity. Resistance', group show. Mystetskyi Arsenal (Kyiv)
2021 'A Secret Museum of the Workers Movement', group show. Hoast (Vienna).
2020 'Economy of Borders', group installation. Rathaus Moabit. Organized by Marina Naprushkina and Joulia Strauss (Berlin)
2020 'Status - artistic practice and social change', group show (with the '(non)work' group). Konstepidemin (Gothenburg).
2019 'The Specific-Emotional' (in the framework of 'E N C H A NT É E S' by Alix Eynaudi), performative seminar (with Aleksei Borisionok). Tanzquartier Studios (Vienna).
2019 '19892019 KEX OPEN', group show, Kunsthalle Exnergasse (Vienna)
2019 'Pose, Subordination, Festivities and Hedgehogs', group show, Aperto Raum (Berlin)
2019 'Paroles - Académie des Beaux-Arts de Vienne', collective event, La Gaîté Lyrique (Paris)
2018 'With No Exception! In process', group show, Y gallery (Minsk)
2018 'Utopia, place doesn't exist', group show, Gallery-canteen XYZ (Minsk)
2017 'The Kyiv International – Kyiv Biennial 2017' (Kyiv)
2017 '5th Odessa Biennale of Contemporary Art' (Odessa)
2017 'Material Fatigue', Norbergfestival (Norberg)
2017 'Construction Festival', festival of new media and audiovisual art (Dnipro)
2017 'Unsound Dislocation x Mental Force', electronic music and media art festival (Minsk)
2017 'Artes Liberales' art & education festival, Y Gallery (Minsk)
2016 ''The Specific Emotional': Between the Repetition and the Event', group show, Liljevalchs Hubb (Stockholm)
2016 ''The Specific Emotional'': Between the Monument and the Ritual’, group show, KX Space (Brest); in the framework of ‘Month Of Photography in Minsk’ photo festival (Belarus)
2016 'Sofia Underground International Performance Art Festival', Earth and Man Museum (Sofia)
2016 ‘Techno Trance (Paradise Is Now)’, group show, Under Bron club (Stockholm)
2016 ‘Dotyk Queer Festival' (Minsk)
2015 ‘The School of Kyiv’ Kyiv Biennial 2015 (Kyiv)
2015 ‘The Dimensions of Emptiness’ group exhibition, Y Gallery (Minsk)
2015 ‘Everything What Is Solid Melts into Air’ group show, Maksim Bogdanovich Literary Museum (Minsk)
2015 'LAPSody 2015' 5th International Conference & Festival for Live Art and Performance Studies, University of the Arts Helsinki (Helsinki)
2015 'BY NOW Contemporary Photography from Belarus' group show, ifa-Galerie Berlin, Institut fur Auslandsbeziehungen (Berlin)
2014 'XXY' group exhibition, Y Gallery (Minsk)
2014 'Foreign Affairs' International Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts, Berliner Festspiele (Berlin)
2013 'BY NOW Contemporary Photography from Belarus' group show, CECH (Minsk)
2013 'Former West' Research Congress, Haus der Kultur der Welt (Berlin)
2010 'Oil Painting' group exhibition, Y Gallery (Minsk)
2010 'Videoakt' International Videoart Biennal (Barcelona)
RESIDENCIES
2024 Meetfactory AiR (Prague)
2023 PAF (France)
2020-2021 Live Works / Centrale Fies (Dro, Italy)
2019 Ställbergs Gruva / The non existent Center (Ställberg, Sweden)
2019 Residency at the Slavs and Tatars’ studio (Berlin, Germany)
2018 What’s there to learn: Self-Education for Self-Educators, an (im)practical conference & a convivial residency, Free Home University (Castiglione d’Otranto, Lecce, Italy)
2018 Sweet Home: Research residencies in domestic spaces (as part of WORK HARD! PLAY HARD! working group), hablarenarte (Madrid, Spain)
2017 1/2/8 - Demanding Responses (as part of WORK HARD! PLAY HARD! working group), PACT Zollverein (Essen, Germany)
2017 Art Prospect (supported by CEC Artslink), Suburb Platform (Yerevan, Armenia)
2017 Civic Media Lab (Dnipro, Ukraine)
2016 Free Home University (Lecce, Italy)
ORGANIZER
2024 Decentric Circles Assembly organized as part of WHPH working group. Warsaw, Poland with SDK Słonecznik, Roma Community Centre, Turnus na Wolskiej + public spaces
2021 How to interrupt (work, time, movement) at Springs.video streaming platfrom. Co-curated with Aleksei Borisionok.
2020 WORK HARD! PLAY HARD!' Test Test Test Co-organized with Aleksei Borisionok and eeefff. Various locations & space, at the distance.
2019 'WORK HARD! PLAY HARD!' Side Affects Co-organized with Aleksei Borisionok and eeefff. Various locations (Minsk)
2018 'WORK HARD! PLAY HARD!' Co-organized with Aleksei Borisionok and eeefff. Various locations (Minsk)
2018 'YES EVERYTHING NOW #2': Dotyk Queer Festival opening party. Co-curated with Aleksei Borisionok. (Minsk)
2017 'WORK HARD! PLAY HARD! TRANSMISSION' Co-organized with Aleksei Borisionok and eeefff. Various locations (Minsk)
2017 'YES EVERYTHING NOW', Dotyk Queer Festival opening party. Co-curated with Aleksei Borisionok and Johan Norling. Gallery-canteen XYZ (Minsk)
2016 'WORK HARD! PLAY HARD!', a week of tours, lectures, performances, talks, workshops and parties. Co-organized with Aleksei Borisionok and eeefff. Various locations (Minsk)