Stanislava Ovchinnikova

Artistic projects
2026 / The Animal That Therefore You Made Me (Follow)
/ performance, public space intervention
2026 / A Performance for Two (Part 1/4)
/ durational performance, installation
2026 / A Performance for Two (Part 2/4) 
/ text-based performance, installation
2026 / A Performance for Two (Part 3/4)
/ sound-based performance, installation
2026 / A Performance for Two (Part 4/4)
/ premiere: 19.08.26 @ Amos Rex Museum, Helsinki
2026 / Untitled 
/ text, artistic commission of Pori Art Museum
2024-ongoing / Suspension in Other Terms
/ photography
2023 / Understanding The Urgency
/ lecture-performance
2023 / My Mother Told Me Not To Look Men In The Eye
/ video (silent)
2021 / Am I Dead Yet?
/ photography

Curatorial projects
2026 / Bark! (Volume 1) @ HIAP
2025 / Ukraine (working title) @ Critical Gallery, Turku, FI
2024 / 2 Years, 3657 Days @ Kaunas Artists’ House, LT
2023-2024 / Moving in Mayhem @ international touring


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stanislavaovchinnikova (at) gmail.com

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current:
A Performance for Two / Generation 2026 @ Amos Rex Museum
Untitled (text) / De Se - Attitude @ Pori Art Museum

upcoming:
Bark! (Volume 3) / 6.09 @ HIAP Community Room
Dwell Here Residency / September 2026 @ Irish Museum of Modern Art
Bark! (Exhibition) / November 2026 @ Gallery Augusta, HIAP

2026 / A Performance for Two (Part 3/4) / sound-based performance, installation
Full video documentation: https://vimeo.com/1204817451 (44 min. Password protected. To request the password, please email stanislavaovchinnikova(at)gmail.com)



A Performance for Two is a changing installation and a series of four performances. It was created for the 2026 triennial Generation exhibition of the Amos Rex Museum (Helsinki, Finland). The work takes shape around the installation (consisting of two chairs and a table) over the period of four months—the total duration of the exhibition. Each of the four performances is only done once, never repeating during the same exhibition. Every performance also brings changes the installation, which remains on view during the whole exhibition period. The four parts of the performance form a single narrative circle. 

The starting point of this work is an episode from my family’s history: in the 1980’s USSR, while filling in a form to receive his first passport, my father was asked to provide a Ukrainian-language version of his surname—it had been pre-typed in Russian, while the Ukrainian equivalent was to be added by hand. Instead of adapting the surname in accordance with the Ukrainian orthographic rules, he simply transliterated it. Thus, ‘Ovchinnikov’ was recorded where ‘Ovchynnikov’ should have been. 

What if this mistake had caused a split in timelines, and there was born, in parallel reality, a version of myself that never had to carry the faulty surname? In A Performance for Two, I am inviting Stanislava Ovchynnikova into the museum space to rectify the fault. 

Part Three is a sound-based performance with a tape machine, one loop, and a pair of scissors.

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Audio recording of the performance from May 2026 is available here (Google Drive). 

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Performance idea & implementation, costume, installation, production, writing: Stanislava Ovchinnikova
Technical assistance: Sohei Yasui
Realized with the support from Amos Anderson Fond and Kone Foundation

Generation exhibition team 
Tii Laakso, project manager, leading technician 
Inna Schwanck, curator 
Elsa Hessle, curator, deputy director, content and collections 
Melanie Orenius, head of learning and engagement 
Laura Porola, senior planner 
Pinja Rosenberg, producer 
Antonella Perna, registrar 
Marianne Lagus, senior technical producer
Sohei Yasui, senior technical producer

With gratitude also to Sophea Lerner, Amado Peña, Jaakko Pallasvuo, Miina Hujala, Arttu Merimaa, Katariina Timonen, Krista Mamia, Nadiye, and Denny Syed, as well as to my intellectual and artistic companions in the critical examination of human-canine relationships—Los', Maria Batchenko, and Kush Badhwar.

The project benefited from my participation in the Nuori Taide residency at gallery Toinen Silmä, the Landscape (post) Conflict Summer School organized by the Irish Museum of Modern Art/NCAD/L'Internationale, and a work-in-progress reading held in the context of the Ääniä Reading Sessions curated by Amado Peña and taking place at Bar Tÿpo/Tekstin Talo.

Footage on this webpage: Maria Bayat, Gonzalo Muruaga, Maria Sennikova, Mathias Rosenlund

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© Stanislava Ovchinnikova, 2016 -