THE HAGUE.- We are bombarded with information from all sides, via the television, radio and Internet. One of the most authoritative sources is still the written word in newspapers because, if something is written and printed, it must be true. Russian artist Julia Winter, who lives and works in Amsterdam, has taken this premise – taken for granted by so many of us – as the starting point for her exhibition APXИB 09 (Archive 09), which is based on 194 newspaper pages from all over in the world, reworked as a comment on the power of the media.

Julia Winter has transformed the 194 newspaper pages into works of art, covering the text and pictures with paint, personal images and objets trouvés. Only the names of the newspapers have been left intact, so the viewer can clearly see what linguistic area the newspapers originally came from. In some cases, Winter understands the articles or headlines, and her reworking of them is almost a direct comment – as in the sports page that is almost completely obscured by the logo of a cigarette manufacturer. In most cases, however, she does not speak the language, and her reworking is intuitive.

The installation is not only a commentary on the influence and power of the media, it also refers to the fact that, despite globalisation, most information sources are tied to a single linguistic culture. The poetic transformations of the newspapers are presented in an accessible language that appeals to a universal human sensitivity. Julia Winter has thus found an aesthetic way of inviting debate on the information presented to us by newspapers.

Julia Winter was born in Moscow in 1965, but moved at an early age to Murmansk in the north of the country. At the age of twelve she returned to the Russian capital where she studied at the art academy. She settled in Amsterdam in 1995, having spent some time there previously on an exchange programme. She has exhibited in several countries, including the Netherlands, Germany and Russia and her work has appeared at several international fairs.