Polina Medvedeva (NL/NO, 1989, she/her) works within the intersection of film, installation and performance, exploring formats that allow for multiplicity of narratives, site specificity, and audio responsive imagery. Thinking through loopholes and informal economic structures, she is interested in foregrounding stories of circumventing political prohibitions, societal stereotypes, and effects of economic crises and conflicts. Her focus on the tactics of civil disobedience and mechanisms of vernacular resilience – improvised, passed through generations as oral histories, smuggled in through migration – speaks of the (im)possibilities of existing within while being against systems of oppression.
Medvedeva has been a resident at de Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten Amsterdam (2020/2022) and her work was exhibited and performed at among others Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Sonic Acts Festival, Nederlands Film Festival, BAK (NL), Landmark, Bergen Kunsthall, Lofoten International Art Festival, Tromsø Kunstforening, Ultima Festival (NO), WIELS (BE), Cité Internationale des Arts (FR), HYBRID Biennale (DE), Baltic Circle (FI) and Lighthouse (UK). She has been a guest tutor at Sandberg Instituut, KMD Bergen, ArtEZ, Gerrit Rietveld Academie and a tutor and lecturer at the Utrecht University of the Arts. She is a member of the selection committee for the Creative Industries Fund NL and a board member of The One Minutes Foundation.