Katya Selezneva

#thereroundthecornerinthedeep book

Finally my book “There round the corner in the deep” is out! Special edition of 15 180x240mm 128 pages #thereroundthecornerinthedeep DM for details

Photograph from our project “Beyond the Upper Margin” created together with @seleznevvladimir as part of the group exhibition at AFF Galerie in Berlin. Thank you @aff_galerie for the opportunity to share this project with a wider audience while we continue working on it. Special thanks to @francawohlt for the images and support.

Katya Selezneva @ftx.ost There Round the Corner in the Deep, 2019-2023  The project centers on the mythology of a closed city (ZATO) where I grew up. During the Cold War, the city disappeared from maps, and the figure of a saint-hermit who once lived there was replaced by a nuclear physicist. Hidden in dense forests, it became one of the key sites in the development of the hydrogen bomb. My grandfather was one of the scientists involved in the nuclear program. I never knew him, but inherited his archive of film negatives. Due to strict secrecy, his photographs lack direct documentation; they depict only family and nature, yet are marked by traces of anxiety—scratches, burnt spots, and mold. Now this city is named Sarov and it is a place where religion and science, faith and militarism are intertwined. The government and the church use both Orthodoxy and nuclear technology in their propaganda as symbols of power and oppression. The boundary between fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred. The forest, a central motif throughout the project, acts as both scene and metaphor—a symbolic space of the unknown, where memory mutates, histories dissolve, and futures emerge in fragments. The city is still obscured by the trees and bushes, like the Sleeping Beauty’s castle. By weaving together my grandfather’s archive with photographs taken by me in and around the city, and staged images based on facts, legends, and speculation, I reconstruct a discontinuous narrative in which private histories collide with collective myths.

process of working on ‘Whiteout’ sequence

›Keep Your Eyes Peeled‹ mit VLADIMIR SELEZNEV & KATYA SELEZNEVA @seleznevvladimir / @ftx.ost Eröffnung: 30.04.2026, 18–22 Uhr Laufzeit: 01.–03.05.2026, 15–18 Uhr ›Keep Your Eyes Peeled‹ ist ein Ausstellungsprojekt der AFF Galerie und findet seit über 10 Jahren zu bestimmten Kunsthighlights in den Räumen der Galerie statt. Während des diesjährigen Berlin Gallery Weekend wird die Gruppenausstellung erneut mit Arbeiten der AFF-Fotograf*innen sowie ausgewählten Künstler*innen aus dem erweiterten Umfeld der Galerie zu sehen sein. Teilnehmende Künstler*innen: Alena Schmick, Aleksey Myslitskiy, Alexander Meyer, Alexander Nikolsky, Alparslan Kabasakal, Amber Digby, Ana Maria Sales Prado, Axel Grünewald, Bastian Gehbauer, Benjamin Renter, Colin Aherne, Dana Engfer, Felipe Rennt, Felix von der Osten, Florian Bong-Kil Grosse, Florian Stumpe, Franca Wohlt, Gilberto Zamorano, Greta Verlage, Hanna Wiedemann, Inge Trienekens, Isabelle Ostlund, Johanna Eckhardt, Juan Camillo, Julia Autz, Jule Fechner, Karla Zipfel, Kathrin Harms, Kayla Kauffman, Kseniya Apresian, Laszlo Randelzhofer, Leon Gnannt, Louis Roth, Lua Ray, Lucia Jost, Maidje Meergans, Marcel Maffei, Marshl Ceron Palomino, Max Koppernock, Michael O'Ryan, Michel Kekulé, Mirka Pflüger, Patrick Enssle, Philipp Czampiel, Pia Henkel, Roman Bezjak, Ronja Falkenbach, Sam Saga, Sarah Straßmann, Saskia Groneberg, Sebastian Alten, Shirin Esione, Sina Opalka, Steffi Drerup, Stefanie Loos, Svenja Wiese, Tarık Kemper, Tanya Sharapova, Vladimir Seleznev&Katya Selezneva, Weeteng Poh

Whiteout