ON VIEW

Maria Belova: Nobody’s Watching

Vienna Collectors Club
Herrengasse 6-8/2/7, 1010 Vienna

12 December 2024 - 10 January 2025
Tuesday - Thursday 12.00-17.00
and by appointment

What connects the high-tech visuality of drones to the Christian worldview? Maria Belova's upcoming exhibition, “Nobody's Watching”, examines the dynamics of governance, religion, and power. At the core of the exhibition is an investigation into how the omnipresent gaze of surveillance technology reflects the Christian idea of an all-seeing divine. Belova questions whether these systems of control mirror divine authority or reinforce earthly hierarchies.

About

Maria Belova is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker. After earning a BA in linguistics in Moscow, Belova moved to Austria where she subsequently started her artistic practice. She has studied Transmedia-and Fine Arts in Vienna (prof. Brigitte Kowanz, Jakob Lena Knebl, University for Applied Arts) and London (Chelsea College of Arts, University of the Arts). Recent exhibitions and contributions took place at Kunsthalle Vienna, Deichtorhallen Hamburg, Council Memorial Church (Konzilsgedächtniskirche) Vienna, Phileas – The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, as well as through multiple performances and interventions in public spaces.

Maria’s multifaceted practice reveals a blend of performance and objecthood, where the two are in a constant state of dialogue and exchange. It is predicated on her ability to make the invisible visible, to give form to the formless, and voice to the silent. Her works, imbued with a sense of absence, explore human desire for connection and transcendence, as well as the power structures that shape and constrain those aspirations.

Education

Transmedia Art (Brigitte Kowanz, Jakob Lena Knebl), University for Applied Arts Vienna, 2020–now
Fine Art (Mary Evans), Chelsea College - University of the Arts London, 2023
Art Photography (Anja Manfredi), Schule Friedl Kubelka Wien, with the teaching contributions by Elfie Semotan, Josephine Pryde, Timm Rautert & others, 2019–2020

Selected exhibitions & Performances

Maria Belova: Nobody’s Watching, solo show at Vienna Collectors’ Club, Vienna
PASSAGE, accompanying program with Jakob Lena Knebl and Ashley Hans Scheirl, Falckenberg Collection Deichtorhallen Hamburg (DE), 2024
Women in Tech, Villa Mautner Jäger, Vienna, 2024
Interspace, Galeria WY, Łódź (PL), 2024
ReA! Art Fair, Milan (IT), 2023
PARALLEL VIENNA, Vienna, 2023
Figures of Imagination. Trans..., Georg Kargl Permanent, Vienna, 2022
Soft Machine, Phileas – The Austrian Office for Contemporary Art, Vienna, curated by Jakob Lena Knebl, 2022
Anti–Anti–Anti: de-visibility, unbiased biases and friends, Angewandte Festival, Vienna, curated by Mauricio Ianes de Moraes, 2022
Get It While You Can!, Never At Home, Vienna, co-curated by Maria Belova, 2022
Search for Your People, performative action with Mariya Vasilyeva, University of Applied Arts, Vienna, 2022
A shop is a shop is a shopbeta. Conceptual store, Kunsthalle, Vienna, curated by Klaus Speidel, 2022
Maria Belova: Unspoken, solo show in Konzilgedächtniskirche, Vienna, curated by Gustav Schörghofer SJ, 2021
The 8th Catholic Arts Biennial, The Verostko Center for the Arts, PA (USA), 2021
REALITY, Kunstsalon FLUC, Vienna, curated by Anna Zwingl & Brigitte Kowanz, 2021
Stille Räume, das Weisse Haus, Vienna, curated by Itai Margula, 2020
Bingo!, performative solo intervention, Belvedere 21, Vienna, 2020
Net Works, with Darja Shatalova, Kara Agora European Art & Research Center, online, curated by Julia Hartmann, 2020
Ya I Ona, performance with Darja Shatalova, in the framework of Question Me & Answer, Improper Walls, Vienna, curated by Smaranda Krings, Osama Zatar & Justina Speirokaite, 2019

Cooperation & Projects

Digital Communications & Branding, viennacontemporary, 2021–now
Freelance art documentation & Content creator (with viennacontemporary, Phileas, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Academy of Fine Arts Vienna, ZAHORIAN & VAN ESPEN gallery, das weisse haus, Question Me & Answer, Improper Walls gallery, lt.art festival, multiple individual artists), 2020–now
Co-Curator, Get It While You Can!, Never At Home, Vienna (with Ganaël Dumreicher, Isolar Mesec, Felix Schellhorn, Marlene Stahl, Iris Writze), 2022
PR & Communications Responsible, A shop is a shop is a shop^beta. Conceptual store, Kunsthalle, Vienna, 2022