Olya Korsun (Russia)

Olya Korsun is an Amsterstam-based filmmaker and artist whose works question the ways knowledge is built about the natural world and its phenomena. Her films and texts, always unapologetically personal and witty, invite the viewers to defamilirize themselves with what is considered ‘known’ and experience it anew, outside of tired orthodoxies of hegemonic knowledge. Her mid-length debut Blue Rose (2020) studying the subject of flower commodification and symbolism had its premiere in the international competition of IndieLisboa Festival in Portugal, which was followed by other screenings, including ImageForum Festival in Tokyo, EXiS in Seoul, MIEFF in Moscow and others. Olya’s second mid-length film The West Pole (2022) – a 16mm diary of a bewildering expedition to the West Pole is based on the research conducted during the residency at Sandberg Institute (Amsterdam) in collaboration with one the largest European museums of natural history – Naturalis (Leiden, Netherlands).