Marija Nemčenko

No more than vodka & kebabs navigates the space between two migrations: the one created by Marija Nemcenko’s grandmother when she moved from Moscow to Lithuania, and the one the artist created herself by immigrating to the “mirage” that Western countries always seemed to present. The work tells a personal story of splitting oneself into two: the part defined by yourself and the part defined by others.

Hybrid identity in turn is created by will and against it: by willingly splitting oneself from one’s cultural roots, already unhinged in the artist’s personal case; and by exposing oneself to the preconceived stereotypes that, like templates, thoughtlessly define “the other.” In the work these templates, stickers, and labels are attached to obscure faces – the faces of Nemcenko and her mother.

Marija Nemcenko (1989) is a Lithuanian artist, writer, and creative learning activities facilitator based in Glasgow, Scotland. She received her MFA from Glasgow School of Art in 2016 and BA(Hons) in Sculpture from Camberwell College of Arts in 2013. Drawing from her personal experience of growing up in a former soviet country and subsequent cultural displacement, Nemcenko questions the binary constructs of East (both Middle East and Eastern Europe) and West. Recent exhibitions include: Civic Room (Glasgow, Scotland), 2019; Berlin Project Space Festival, 2018; and Glasgow International 2018. In 2019 Nemcenko participated in the A.M Qattan and E-flux residency program Ways of Traveling in Ramallah, Palestine.