Asya Marakulina

I started creating the ceramic series "There Was a Home" in Vienna. It was here that I began experimenting with ceramics, but the roots of this series trace back to long before I moved here. When I lived in St. Petersburg, I often came across ruined 19th-century houses, and I was always drawn to their remnants. I would take photos with my phone and compile a sort of personal archive of such places. After moving to Vienna, I discovered a similar site near my home, where several houses had been demolished, likely due to their age. Since houses in the 19th century were built without gaps between them, when one house is torn down, the neighboring house often bears traces of the demolished one. These traces reveal wallpaper, tiles, and other signs of human habitation. This imagery, which had captivated me for a long time, finally found its ideal expression in ceramics, as I began working closely with the medium here. In addition, I save photos of demolished houses that I come across on the internet. Unfortunately, the world is once again engulfed in wars, and I think about this every day, dreaming of the day when wars will finally end, so that people will stop dying and homes will stop being destroyed. This has also had a profound impact on the series. I can say that I always base my work on a real, existing house. However, during the creative process, I make significant changes to the house. Some of the wall colors are altered. Sometimes I add graffiti and tags that I see on the streets. I take certain words from news I come across. Some tags I photograph in the city, creating a collage that blends real, once-existing houses with my daily exploration of the urban environment.