With the outbreak of the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine in February 2022, the multimedia artist fled her hometown of Kiev/Kyiv with her son. As artist in residence at the OÖ Landes-Kultur GmbH, she has created at Gmundner Keramik her most monumental work to date, “Fragile City,” which is now being shown at the place where it was created.

In the thirteenth century, tiled stoves began to proliferate in many households, and upper-class residences often boasted handsome examples with elaborate ornament. Ever since then, tiled stoves have stood for the cozy warmth of home. Julia Beliaeva uses the form of the tiled stove as a prototype for modernist architecture. She bases her designs on early twentieth-century utopias as they were once materialized in the uniform, omnipresent prefabricated buildings of the Soviet era. But her works convey at the same time the destruction and scars left by the Russian war on Ukraine.

“Fragile City” was created as a memorial to a war that is today being broadcast by the media in real time. The work tells of the existential suffering that has pervaded Ukraine for more than a year. Resembling a tiled stove, the ceramic object calls to mind the bombed-out, burnt-out houses in Kiev and environs.