Olga Bojko is an interdisciplinary artist based in Moscow. With a background in theatre, she works with a range of media and materials, creating installations, objects, and embroidery. In her practice, Bojko is interested in the contemporary mythology, and especially in the forms it takes in the post-Soviet Russia. She often uses text and language in her works.
Recommended by Alexandra Kuznetsova
Tree, 2011. Made of wooden fragments of IKEA furniture that are painted like a birch bark, the structure also features a drip that imitates the system of gathering birch juice—but the liquid coming out is the iconic green tarragon drink Tarkhuna
End of the World, 2015. The words “end of the world” become visible only if a light is placed to the side of the work
Mega Renaissance, 2017. The project reflects on the use of old aesthetic tropes in the capitalist discourse, the devaluation of the renaissance ideal
Interjections, 2019. CCI Fabrika. Curator: Gerasim Kuznetsov. The only thing left from slogans and signs in this installation are interjections—our emotional reactions to the reality that, linguistically, are often not recognised as a part of speech
At the Crossroads, 2020. Pirogovo, ChaShcha exhibition. Curator: Andrey Erofeev. Through bringing together the folk legend of Ilya Muromets and the elements of a keyboard, Bojko highlights the two different systems we all inhabit
At the Crossroads, 2020. Pirogovo, ChaShcha exhibition. Curator: Andrey Erofeev
More than a True Story, 2011. In this project, Bojko uses the age-old technique of knitting to recreate the newer, but already outdated, images from 8-bit games
More than a True Story, 2011. This way of encoding information is reminiscent of Native American quipu—recording devices made of string
More than a True Story, 2011. At the same time, the image of a birch forest is a clear reference to Russian nature
Fish Are Mute, 2015. “Our Everything.” The Russian title of the project is a quasi-homophone of the famous first phrase of the 1919 alphabet book for adults, “We are not slaves”
Fish Are Mute, 2015. Here, Bojko adds three letters to the word “peace,” making it sound like “f*cked up” in Russian
Fish Are Mute, 2015. Similarly, the word “true” becomes the Russian word for “dead bodies”
Fish Are Mute, 2015. By adding an exclamation mark to the phrase “thinking aloud,” Bojko makes it an imperative: “Think aloud!”
Arch of Triumph, 2017. CCI Fabrika. Curator: Yulia Lebedeva. Made of food packaging, the installation “celebrates” the victory of the consumer society
