this picture never existed –
An exhibition by Yanina Zaichanka
At Anatomigården, Rådhusgata 19, 0158 Oslo
Opening 18:00–20:00, 5 February 2026
Exhibition dates: 6 February – 15 October 2025
Open Wednesday–Sunday, 12:00–16:00, or by appointment
Contact: office@praksisoslo.org
Free entry | No step free access
Dearest father and mother,
I hope this finds you well.
This is the latest picture of me.
My eyes are blue-brown,
And my hair is the colour of a chestnut.
I am fairly tall.
Sending you my best wishes,
Kind regards,
Your daughter Klava
[Klava’s note on the reverse of a photograph,
as remembered by the artist]
Moving through layers of absence—silences, secrets, and omissions—Yanina Zaichanka seeks to connect with their late grandmother, Klava, whose life was marked by repression in the USSR.
When Klava was three years old, her parents were forcibly relocated to the Ural Mountains, and they witnessed her growing up through her letters. A black-and-white portrait of Klava, with her appearance described on the reverse, was the only remaining evidence of this correspondence.
Reluctant to share her life story, Klava left much unsaid. Zaichanka received fragments from their father and grandfather, who did not know the full story. As the artist gathered details bit by bit—from relatives and archives—the narrative opened onto a broader history, full of blanks and guesses, set between wars, shifting borders, and state politics.
This final portrait from Klava’s adolescence is now missing, leaving Zaichanka with only a faint recollection and persistent longing. Conjured from memory in embroidery and spoken word, the absent image becomes the exhibition’s central motif. The multi-channel sound installation gathers repeated attempts to narrate Klava’s life story from fragmented, flawed accounts. Recorded across eighteen different days, the retellings shift, shaped by repetition.
Together, the sound work and embroidered replica underscore what cannot be recovered, while holding uncertainty and misremembering in view.
This picture never existed is an exhibition by Yanina Zaichanka, developed as the artist’s MFA graduation project at the Academy of Fine Art, Oslo National Academy of the Arts. Zaichanka is a former PRAKSIS resident (Residency 22: Repression – Expression // Violence – Creative Resistance, developed with the Peace Research Institute Oslo and Motaz Al Habbash).
