With great joy, I share that I have been organising and curating this year’s Graukunst exhibition, the visual arts programme of Grauzone Festival—an interdisciplinary festival dedicated to underground music, film, and art. Having been part of the organisation since its early beginnings, it remains deeply rewarding to witness how these practices come together each year, strengthening the community and expanding its reach.

This year’s exhibition focuses on the feedback loops between bodies and machines, drawing inspiration from Electronic Body Music (EBM), in which synthesisers and moving bodies operate as a single system. Together, they create an exhilarating, hypnotic experience in which organism and machinery merge, producing altered states of awareness. Rhythm, sweat, control, and the loss of control drive these dynamics.

The artists in this exhibition work precisely within this terrain: transforming the body into a machine, and manipulating machines to behave like bodies. At a moment when digital technologies are no longer optional but an unavoidable reality, Graukunst reflects on society as a vast interconnected system in which we are both operators and components. In the spirit of punk and resistance that underpins Grauzone, the exhibition invites us to move, to dance, and to momentarily disrupt the system—finding freedom through rhythm, collectivity, and embodied experience.

See the whole program here:

https://www.grauzonefestival.nl/graukunst-body-machine

I can’t believe it! The industry jury picked my work to be awarded in the Installation/Sculpture Category! Thank you so much!

This proactive initiative has been created for all creative students graduating this year in all art & design categories such as fine arts, visual communication, film, fashion, textiles, interior, architecture, visual arts, contemporary craft, industrial & product design and more! Over 5000 students submitted their end-of-year projects and took part, making @globalcreativegraduateshowcase the biggest online showcase of graduating creatives worldwide!!  Arts Thread’s panel of independent expert judges selected a shortlist of 500, which was judged by the general public and also by our industry experts.

https://www.artsthread.com/events/globalcreativegraduateshowcase 

Can’t express how happy I am to hear that I have won the Manifestations Young Talent Award during Dutch Design Week with my MA graduation work, The Alien Between Us. Thank you, Manifestations! and Dutch Design Week for supporting and following my work for the last years.

Manifestations is an exhibition during Dutch Design Week with projects operating at the intersection of art and technology. Manifestations asks you how far technology defines your world, thinking and acting.

The jury commented on my work:

“An interactive installation in which two people experience each other’s heartbeat, breathing, and temperature through responsive, wearable sculptures. Intimacy arises precisely through separation. An intermediary for human emotions. Yet another machine between people? The jury was a little apprehensive but was overwhelmed by Dima’s work. Her sculpture feels surprisingly human: like a warm baby in your arms, something you want to cherish and care for. Meanwhile, you sense ‘the other,’ whether that’s pleasant or unpleasant. Do we need an intermediary sculpture to still feel and experience each other? In times of far-reaching individualisation and polarisation, this is a pressing question, one that could not have been tangibly depicted in a better and more creative way. For Dima, metaforms are not metaphors but a channel for a serious story and issue. Moreover, the jury gives extra praise for the technical and visual execution.”

I’m thrilled to share that my project, The Alien Between Us, has been shortlisted for the Arts Thread International Graduate Competition in the Fine Art, Jewelry & Craft category.

After the jury’s selection, the public will have the chance to vote for their favourite projects — and I could use your support!

Visit the link below to view my project page and cast your vote:

https://www.artsthread.com/events/globalcreativegraduateshowcase/vote/art#/project/the-alien-between-us

Thank you for helping me share this work with a wider audience!