On Thursday, 14 May at 5:30 PM, Viktoria Martjanova’s first solo exhibition Biomaterial will open at the Hobusepea Gallery. Working with installation, video and photography, the artist regards the body as a resource: a currency that can be optimised, controlled, used and categorised according to political, military and economic interests.
At the centre of the exhibition is a large-scale installation made of hair, transforming this intimate and personal material into a spatial experience. From this enchanting, yet repellent approach to material and form, Martjanova moves on to the media of photography and video, creating a more direct link between organic matter and human life. The exhibited bodies and materials have lost their autonomy and function rather as units in a broader socio-political system, where their value is determined by their usability and purpose.
Viktoria Martjanova is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice includes video, installation, sound, text and performativity. Her work focuses on the formation of identity in conditions where the personal experience is inextricably linked to social and political mechanisms, perceiving the body as a tension field where these power dynamics are manifested.
Martjanova uses bodily experience, memory and language as materials to examine how personal tension and social structures intertwine in the body and how these relationships become perceivable. Her works move along the axis of tension and interruption, looking at identity as an unstable construct that is constantly rewritten. Martjanova highlights the human and young author’s position in conditions shaped by external pressure, visibility and the requirement to create one’s self-image.
Her works have been shown at the Performa Biennial in New York, the Riga Art Week’s (RAW) opening event, the Alma Gallery in Riga and the Vilnius Art Week. She is the laureate of the 2025 Young Artist Award granted by the Estonian Academy of Arts.
Curator: Lilian Hiob-Küttis
Graphic design: Maxim Nikanorov
Installation of the exhibition: Polina Kaiko, Tõnis Tallermaa, Madis Eek, Hans-Otto Ojaste
Metalwork: Märt Vaidla
Special gratitude to Eesti Kultuurkapital, Eesti Kunsti Aakadeemia, Anita Kremm, Ksenia Verbeštšuk, Juri Krutii, Todd Richter, Dmitry Gubin, Viktoria Arapina, juuste doonorid, kunstniku perekond, Villem Varik, Kristina Kuzemko, Liisi Kõuhkna, Kaisa Maasik-Koplimets, Jordi Hin, Andrei Kazakov, Meraki Testa Dell’Acqua
PS! The celebration of the exhibition opening will continue at club Uus Laine starting from 8:30pm.
Additional information:
Viktoria Martjanova, martjanovaviktoria@gmail.com, +372 58365117
Exhibitions in the Hobusepea Gallery are supported by the Cultural Endowment of Estonia, the Estonian Ministry of Culture and Liviko AS.
The gallery is managed by the Estonian Artists’ Association.
