Five Steps

Over the past ten years, Victoria Lomasko has repeatedly provided a counterargument to the official Russian narrative with her graphic art and murals. Her pen portrayed situations and protests in various Russian cities, creating an invaluable political counter-archive. Under pressure in Russia for several years, Lomasko fled Moscow shortly after the invasion of Ukraine, knowing she had become even more of a target. She took refuge first in Brussels, then in Germany. Despite her position as a political opponent, she at times faces exclusion in the West because of her Russian passport. She wrote about such an experience in the essay «Five Steps», and then created on this basis a lecture performance composed of words, live drawing and also fragments of documentary movie «Tree of Violence» about her artistic practice. By talking and sketching, she recalls the life of a dissident artist in five steps: Isolation, Escape, Exile, Shame, and Humanity. In this unique form, Victoria Lomasko gives shape to daily life under Putin's regime while questioning the production of narratives during a war, and the possible role of an artist.

Following the performance «Five Steps» on 23 May, there will be a discussion with the artist at 21:15 in the Zentrum Markus.

Victoria Lomasko’s practice of graphic reportage synthesizes image and text, taking the form of novels, journalism, comics, paintings and monumental murals. Travelling across Russia and neighbouring countries, often at huge personal risk, her work often embraces a magical realist sensibility as a method of processing subjective and visceral experiences. She is currently in exile.