- 3. prize Neuköllner Kunstpreis 2026
Maryna Makarenko
We asked Maryna Makarenko to tell us about her work Sun Eaters and how it relates to her artistic practice. She also reveals her favourite place in Neukölln.
Listen here to the Interview in English:
Jurystatement
Maryna Makarenko’s video installation is a precise and poetic examination of resource conflicts: set in an abstract alternative world where inhabitants live off solar energy, the work negotiates a utopian counter-narrative to the reality of war in Crimea. The artist skillfully weaves together references to science fiction literature such as that of Ursula K. Le Guin, scientific theories of Ukrainian geochemist Volodymyr Vernadsky, and Soviet-era experiments with solar energy, blending these with personal memories of Crimea as the place of her childhood. In doing so, she creates her own peaceful counterworld and distances herself from the imposed, nationalistic war history of the real place. Both formally and in terms of content, the work impresses with its rich imagery and political relevance.
