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Sveta Mordovskaya at DREI, Cologne

Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 5

For this presentation of new works at Drei, I worked with photographs I took between the years 2005-2008. It is so long ago that I barely remember the things depicted and mostly don’t remember taking them.

This distance gives me the impression that they are like the found objects that I usually work with, which I find on the street or in second- hand shops. Things that I like for certain qualities and let them pass through myself. In this case it has a double effect: it passed through myself then and now.

The question arose for me very often while working with these images: what is their relation to the present? For the moment I can only think that the relation to now is in their material presence and ghostliness at the same time. I don’t have a particular fascination with these photographs, neither as something unusual nor interesting, yet I find them very convincing in how they have come to be.

The exhibition space is not ideal – it’s connected to a kitchen, bathroom, coat rack, and functions as an office. The office, as the most present part, led me to the motif of my old desk: this 90s-type setup where a desk is combined with a shelf.

Back then, the desk was treated by me as a living monument changed day by day; it gave me a sense of self. Yet, the desk was not a definite act of creative or conscious self-expression but more like constant crystallization and decomposition of my reality. Across from my desk was my sister’s desk.

– Sveta Mordovskaya

Sveta Mordovskaya (*1989, Ulan-Ude, Russia) graduated in 2021 from the Academy of Fine Arts, Vienna, under Heimo Zobernig, and previously at the ZHdK, Zurich (BA Photography, 2016). She lives and works in Zurich.

Recent solo exhibitions include Costume, Kunsthaus Biel; Paris Internationale (with King’s Leap), Paris (both 2024); The Beast, King’s Leap, New York (2023); Rest in Pieces, Weiss Falk, Zurich; Assholes, Kevin Space, Vienna (both 2022); Home just a minute from the streets (with Paula Henrike Herrmann), On Curating, Zurich (2021); Complex Doll, Weiss Falk, Basel; Monuments, Cherish, Geneva (both 2020); Suckly Eye, Weiss Falk, Basel (2018); and gravidan, Plymouth Rock, Zurich (2017). she has also participated in exhibitions at Windhager von Kaenel, Zug; Galerie Oskar Weiss, Zurich (both 2025); Sentiment, Zurich (2024); Kunsthalle Zurich; Weiss Falk, XYZ, Tokyo; Weiss Falk at Eva Presenhuber, New York (all 2023); Sperling, Munich; University of Applied Arts, Vienna (both 2021); Second Nature Design Projects, Zurich; Loggia, Vienna (both 2020); Kim? Contemporary Art Centre, Riga; Fri Art Kunsthalle, Fribourg; Longtang, Zurich; Kunsthaus Glarus (all 2019); Galerie Francesca Pia, Zurich; Swiss Institute, New York (both 2018).

Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 1
Sveta Mordovskaya, Fotografieren, 2025, exhibition view, DREI, Cologne
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 2
Sveta Mordovskaya, Fotografieren, 2025, exhibition view, DREI, Cologne
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 3
Sveta Mordovskaya, Desk (Homework), 2025, Chromogenic print, found frame, 57 × 67 cm / 22 1/2 × 26 3/8 in
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 4
Sveta Mordovskaya, Fotografieren, 2025, exhibition view, DREI, Cologne
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 5
Sveta Mordovskaya, Desk (Monument), 2025, Chromogenic print, found frame, 145 × 103 cm / 57 1/8 × 40 1/2 in
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 6
Sveta Mordovskaya, Fotografieren, 2025, exhibition view, DREI, Cologne
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 7
Sveta Mordovskaya, Fotografieren, 2025, exhibition view, DREI, Cologne
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 8
Sveta Mordovskaya, Desk (Books), 2025, Chromogenic print, found frame, 60 × 88 cm / 23 5/8 × 34 5/8 in
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 9
Sveta Mordovskaya, Fotografieren, 2025, exhibition view, DREI, Cologne
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 10
Sveta Mordovskaya, Fotografieren, 2025, exhibition view, DREI, Cologne
Sveta Mordovskaya At Drei, Cologne 11
Sveta Mordovskaya, Desk (Friends), 2025, Chromogenic print, styrofoam, acrylics, gazing ball, 67 × 90 × 8 cm / 26 3/8 × 35 3/8 × 3 1/8 in

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