Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein presents major solo exhibition by Anna Jermolaewa

VADUZ.— With an empathetic eye and subtle humour, Anna Jermolaewa lays bare the hidden mechanisms of everyday life, her practice always very close to the reality of life. Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein is devoting a major solo exhibition to the Vienna-based artist (born in St Petersburg, 1970). Radical Hope combines selected earlier works with numerous new pieces created especially for the exhibition in Vaduz. For this purpose, Jermolaewa travelled to the Pyrenees to trace the path of Walter Benjamin and Lisa Fittko, who helped him escape Vichy France; then to Paris to meet with Aleksandra Wysokińska, who had helped the artist make her escape; and finally to the Channel Island of Jersey, where she shot material for the project in Gerald Durrell's sanctuary for endangered species.

Jermolaewa's artistic practice is intimately linked to her biography. The exhibition is defined by three main aspects: the passion for collecting, exile and migration, but also her special relationship with animals. Forced to flee the former Soviet Union in 1989, Jermolaewa turns her attention to personal experiences and historical traces, confronting our current political and societal realities with radical hope.

A central body of work is the new artwork Museum of Radical Hope (2026): a collection of small, everyday objects made by Soviet prison inmates that Jermolaewa collected over the course of several years. They include hand mirrors and combs along with door handles and lighter cases. Created in acrylic, bread (shaped, left to dry and painted) and ebonite (used for electrical insulation), these objects are characterised by remarkable, careful craftsmanship. The acrylic comes from production scraps from Soviet military factories, where prisoners were forced to work. Amidst captivity, loss and extremely adverse conditions, their production is a testimony to the human capacity to create something beautiful and life-affirming – and thus also to a spark of hope.

In the series of watercolours LAST SEEN SINCE 1970 (2025–ongoing), Jermolaewa catalogues animals that have not been sighted since 1970 – the year of her birth – and are considered extinct. For the exhibition, she extended the series with new large-format drawings based on sketches from 2025. The new video was shot at the Jersey Zoo, the base of the Durrell Wildlife Conservation Trust (founded by Gerald Durrell), and shows staff looking after and rearing endangered species. Even as a child, the artist was fascinated by Durrell's books and his dedication to species protection.

'F' Route looks back to a historical escape route across the Pyrenees used by numerous victims of persecution in the twentieth century. Jermolaewa visited this route on two occasions, in 2021 and 2026. The large panoramic photograph Summit (Dedicated to Lisa Fittko) (2026) commemorates Fittko, who guided people from France to Spain along this route.

In Aleksandra Wysokińska: 20 Years Later / 35 Years Later (2009/2026), Jermolaewa combines the historical dimension of flight with her own biography: the artwork documents her various meetings with Wysokińska, who had helped her flee from the Soviet Union to Austria in 1989.

Some of the artist's works are created over extended periods or further evolve over the course of several years. "One thing I find particularly touching about Anna Jermolaewa's work is that she makes time itself a protagonist", says Christiane Meyer-Stoll, Director of Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein and curator of the show. "She revisits places, people and themes, allowing societal and historical changes to transform her own biography. In this way, the past becomes something alive, something that changes with each new encounter. For me, the particular strength of her work lies in this sustained, deeply humane way of seeing."

The exhibition Radical Hope affords a comprehensive insight into Jermolaewa's conceptual artistic practice, which spans a broad range of media: video, installation, photography, performance, painting and sculpture. Of particular interest to her are the subtle mechanisms of influence that shape our everyday lives. "Many of my works deal with manipulation", says the artist. "Who or what is being manipulated almost always remains outside the image. The mechanisms of power that influence or control individuals today are becoming increasingly subtle and invisible."

Jermolaewa has previously featured in two group shows at Kunstmuseum Liechtenstein: Parliament of Plants (2020–21) and On the Street (2025). The collection includes two of the artist's works, both part of her exhibition in the Austrian pavilion at the 2024 Venice Biennale.

The artist explains the title of the show as follows: "The title goes back to the 2006 book Radical Hope: Ethics in the Face of Cultural Devastation by the philosopher Jonathan Lear. He asks how we can envisage a future amidst physical, social and cultural collapse. The answer is: with radical hope."

Anna Jermolaewa was born and grew up in Leningrad in the former Soviet Union. After being accused of anti-Soviet agitation and propaganda (as one of the original members of the first opposition party, the Democratic Union, and co-publisher of one of its newspapers), aged eighteen she fled via Poland to Vienna in 1989, where she has since been living and working.

From 2005 to 2011 she was a professor of Media Art at Karlsruhe University of Arts and Design, Germany. She has been professor of Experimental Art at the University of Art and Design Linz, Austria, since 2018.

Her work has been shown at numerous international solo and group exhibitions, and she is represented in several renowned collections, including Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam; Museum of Contemporary Art Kiasma, Helsinki; mumok Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, Vienna; and Belvedere Museum, Vienna.

The artist has been awarded several residencies, including the MAK Schindler Scholarship (2017), and prizes such as the Austrian Art Prize for Fine Arts (2020) and the Otto Breicha Award (2021).

She recently gained wide international recognition as Austria's representative at the 2024 Venice Biennale.