Victoria Stepanets

About

Ukraine (1993).
Victoria completed the BA Marketing and advertising from the Trade and Economy University in Kyiv, Ukraine (2015), and the MA Multimedia journalism from the Higher School of Economics. She also studied International relations at the Jagiellonian University in Cracow, Poland (2022). Victoria initiated and curated the Genesis project in Prague, Czech Republic (2019) with the support of the MFA of Ukraine, launched and managed the Culture trend art magazine in Ukraine (2018-22), as well as the Art masters project in Ukraine and Western Europe. She is currently actively engaged in co-curating various art exhibitions in UK, including ‘The Destructive Power of War in the Arts’ (Spring 2024, Cambridge), ‘Our Home is Ukraine’ (Winter 2024, London). She also initiated and co-curates ‘ARK Talks’ magazine which is released at RCA.

‘I believe that art is much more powerful tool that we could imagine. It can be a soft power like it is used in cultural diplomacy, but it also can be a very strong power speaking about serious issues in a very direct way. Having received my first education in the field of international relations, the second in multimedia journalism, and the third in studying contemporary art, I see how these three areas are closely interconnected. This background determined the direction of my curatorial work – to highlight acute socio-political topics through contemporary art. Having experience in the field of culture for more than 5 years, I started with founding a magazine about the values ​​of cultural life, promoting the idea of ​​highly professional contemporary art. Later, this activity expanded to the organization of art exhibitions, one of the largest of which was Genesis, which took place in the legendary Dancing House in Prague with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. In 2022 I moved to London, where I started to learn Curating Contemporary Art at the Royal College of Art. It was here that I began to combine all the previously acquired experience into one point – and implemented a number of art projects that combined socio-political issues, art and cultural journalism. My projects today are attempts not only to draw people’s attention to the acute problems of reality, but through works of art to allow each visitor to experience one or another tragic situation that is happening right now, in parallel, and not as far away as it seems.’