Daria Syvakos (b. 1988, Donetsk, Ukraine) is an artist and researcher. Daria graduated as Meisterschuelerin from the Berlin University of the Arts, new media and experimental film class led by Prof. Dr. Hito Steyerl and Prof. Mykola Ridnyi, and holds a master’s degree in economics. Her works were shown at Ars Electronica, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Kyiv Biennial, Kunsthalle Baden Baden, and Documenta 15 among others. Syvakos received the DAAD, Rosa Luxemburg and the President’s of Ukraine Academic Scholarships and is a nominee of UdK Berlin Art Award. She was a research associate at the Institute of Artificial Intelligence Problems, the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. After Russian occupation of her hometown in 2014 Daria lived and worked across shifting geographies. Currently, she is based in Berlin. Daria Syvakos holds an artistic fellowship at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center. She works as a guest lecturer at the Berlin University of the Arts.
“I’m interested in systems hidden from sight – underwater pipelines, energy dependencies, secret prisons. How do such systems shape bodies, memory and land? How does space mediate access, movement and visibility? What can be learnt from other species to change it? My focus lies in spatial transformations and technologies associated with necropolitical governance.
Reinterpreting displaced, fragmented, or forgotten (hi)stories I aim to deconstruct dominant narratives and their imprint on space and collective imaginaries. Since the occupation of my hometown a decade ago I have been exploring the birth, life and death of infrastructures. I analyse how they reflect imperial and neoliberal logic. During this period I adopted diverse strategies for speculations about the possible futures of built environments and the new life forms they create.
I built alternative spaces to those violently transformed or ruined. However I do it with my own means – through modelling, animating, and rendering as three-dimensional simulations. I use gaming engines to open these environments for the audience. Many of my works require interaction, active navigation of digital terrain and decision-making.
My research-based work takes the form of installations, videos and software. For my recent project I worked with my family archive to tell the story of resistance to erasure. I show how the brutal domination over communities and more-than-human worlds triggers the uncontrolled transformation of all forms of life.”