Center for Uncertainty Studies Blog

© Irina Valkova

Irina, your project INHABITING UNCERTAINTY is associated with CeUS. What is it about?

The project is based on the history of a refugee family from Odessa, which was sheltered in my atelier from the beginning of the war for three months and was subsequently trying to strike roots in Germany without any previous experience of travel or even relocation.

It is a case study of brutal uncertainty that has both a documentary and a purely artistic part. It includes videos, textile, paintings, porcelain sculpture, performance and …cakes - all made in an immediate dialogue with a Ukrainian family. Together we explore fears, dreams and nightmares, invent mental techniques to overcome the seemingly unbearable stage of uncertainty, reflect upon materiality of hope and the specific steps into unknown future.

What does uncertainty mean to you as an artist? Which role does it play in your work?

Uncertainty has become a kind of a norm, since I have lived in nine countries so far, often not knowing what comes next, but having learned that in any case I will  wake up in the morning, and the same sun will be shining out of a window, and then I will be hungry and go getting breakfast - whatever it is where I am.  In my artistic practice it is very similar: most of my projects are ongoing series, highly adjustable to the surroundings. Nothing bombastic in terms of dimensions or material but with a strong yet flexible spine. I tend to work with uncertainty on the level of medium itself, producing open-ended objects and panoramas, deliberately unfinished, participative, with one medium immediately suggesting another and sometimes unpredictable outcomes. This is why I feel reluctant to work with white cubes - they are too certain already at the level of their architecture. Materiality of my work manifests itself not so much in the materials themselves as in the manual labour applied to it. The case in point are the videos made in the time-lapse mode - itself one of the strategies to overcome the uncertainty where it becomes unbearable.

How does research influence your art?

I always do research to frame and contextualise the human dimension, the immediate experience with people and materials. In this respect it can be any discipline or an intersection of them. To give an example, I have been working on a so called Typology of Vague Distances - a spacial theory developed by a Song Dynasty painter Guo Xi. His “typology” is about one thousand years old. When I was searching for similar narratives of our time I came up with the set theory that explored vagueness and fuzziness. Of course, it doesn’t always mean that I dive deeply into each and every theory - sometimes I’m simply not capable of that - but I always try to find relevant literature and specialists to give me at least a basic idea of what I am dealing with. It is rewarding and reassuring to see that we are often drawn to the very same salient questions regardless of our upbringing and professional background. 

How did you connect to CeUS?

I have heard of the CeUS from various people knowing my current work who have spotted thematic overlaps. This is how I came to one of the Uncertainty Lunches where I got to know people from various disciplines sitting at one table and talking openly about uncertainty in terms of mathematics, sociology, anthropology, economics, current political situation etc. That was really a very inspiring moment for me to be in such a multifaceted constellation of specialists trying to find a common language. 

What connects you to Bielefeld University?

To me, a university has always been an institution that has potential to connect the whole city, make it more efficient and vibrant. I can’t imagine myself living in a place where there wouldn’t be a university. In an ideal situation, it’s a place where ideas are being born and (some of them) directly applied to any dimension of the city - culture, schools, all possible care structures etc. I use university library almost every week, visit open lectures and always go to the Nacht der Klänge. 

What would you like to accomplish within the Center for Uncertainty Studies?

First to trust the uncertainty and learn from other people. But seriously, it would be great to create a bridge between science and everyday life, to bring more art to the campus, to develop a dialogue between university and the city - all this driven by the curiosity about what is uncertain, using its dimension of freedom. Maybe working together on a particular case study where our joint involvement would bring tangible results. Another idea - a dream of sorts - is a minimalistic sculpture in a public space embodying the essense of uncertainty.   

To what extent is interdisciplinarity important in your work?

I have never really thought of interdisciplinarity because to me it’s just so normal. In my education I have taken several courses in math and system theory but have never been attached to a specific discipline, and contemporary art is so multifaceted in any case. There is a whole bunch of impressive artists with a scientific background in biology, optics etc. Being an artist you are confronted with such a degree of freedom so that making art seems to be more about finding your own fixed points and personal limits of uncertainty. I imagine that in science it works the other way round.

To sum it up: Do you have specific strategies in your personal or professional life to deal with uncertainty?

These are several  things that really help me in both private and professional life: 

• Going for a bigger context if things get tough. 'Big History' is big enough. 
• Relying more on cyclical trends - both natural (seasons, moon, low/high tides) and your own (especially if you are a woman) - and a bit less on narratives or teleologies.
• Learning to switch easily between the micro and the macro views. 

Thank you very much for the interview!