Unreal estate is the title of a book and book presentation, a Performance on October 29
as well as an exhibition that runs from October 29th until November 18th at Ellen De Bruijne Project.

Join the gallery on October 29 for the presentation of Unreal Estate the Book, a book by Ksenia Galiaeva containing 18 stories and over 100 photographs. Likewise, a selection of Galiaeva’s photographs will be exhibited in the gallery until November 18.

For more than twenty five years, Galiaeva has been photographing her parents in the seemingly paradisiacal surroundings of her familiy’s Russian summerhouse in an attempt to influence her own memory and her family history. Due to her parents’ advanced age and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Galiaeva is drawing this long-term project to a close with a book, an audiobook, a film, and a film installation in four parts.

In Unreal Estate the Book, Galiaeva brings together the autobiographic stories that have always been present as background and driving force of her work, without being fully told, as well as a photographic collection made from 1997 to 2022.

This film and book project, an extension of Galiaeva’s photographic oeuvre, concludes the long period of working with her parents and is an ode to her characters and their history, which have shaped her as a person and artist, the only child of two Holocaust and labor camp survivors, and an ethnic mix of five nationalities (Jewish, Polish and German, Tatar and Russian) and four religions.

The “Unreal Estate the Book” Presentation and Performance will take place on October 29, 4pm in the Gallery space, Amsterdam by Ksenia Galiaeva and with an introduction by Ellen Rutten, professor of Slavic Literatures and Cultures at the University of Amsterdam. The Audiobook will be released Release of Unreal Estate the Audiobook with a live performance by Ksenia Galiaeva and Joachim Badenhorst.

The “Unreal Estate the Movie –– Preview Screening” will taken place on November 2, 20:00 (film length 60 min) at Filmhuis Cavia, Amsterdam

In the seemingly paradisiacal surroundings of their Russian summerhouse, the artist turns her parents into willing actors in their own stories. For over 25 years she has attempted to influence their memory and family history through the power of image and wishful thinking, to create a family myth that could be healing. The summerhouse has become a collection of methaphors where time passes at a stretchable speed – like mythical time where the story continues but is repeating itself at the same time.

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Ksenia Galiaeva lives and works in Antwerp and Amsterdam. Galiaeva teaches Photography and Fine Art at Willem de Kooning Academy in Rotterdam and is represented by Ellen de Bruijne PROJECTS. Her work has been exhibited in solo and group shows, amongst others in Schiedam Museum – NL, Fries Museum – NL, Stedelijk Museum ‘s-Hertogenbosch – NL, Moscow MOMA – RU, Seoul MMCA Changdong – KR.

For her work, Ksenia uses the umbrella title Unreal Estate, which can be interpreted as autobiographical fiction (manipulation and constant rewriting of an autobiographical story), but also has parallels with the construction of (national, fictional) identity.

Image annoucnement: Ksenia Galiaeva, Unreal Estate the Movie, 2023, film still