Anastasiia Marinich is a performance art filmmaker and photographer who has exhibited across Europe in Italy, Greece, Poland, France, and Portugal. Her most recent exhibitions include galleries and venues such as Festival 5th Chania International Photo Festival in Chania, Greece, Galeria CENTRALA in Poznań, Poland, Corpo a Corpo Gallery in Milan, and ImageNation in Paris. She has been featured in publications such as PhotoVogue, Vanguard, Iconic artist, GMARO Magazine, FIGGI Magazine and Mob Journal.
The arthouse films and photography of Anastasiia Marinich rely on minimal and subtle interactions with environments and other actors. Her films contain original handmade props and costumes created by Anastasiia herself or by costume designers. In the films, she has a small crew which assists with hair styling, costumes, and sometimes editing, while the conceptual approach and direction relies on Anastasiia herself. Her works can be regarded as performance art because they are based on conceptual notions rather than concrete narratives. In the film Listening to the Ocean, there contains a performance based on subtly investigating the value of the ocean shore through interactions with rocks, waves, and sand. While a film such as Unwritten Things engages on relationships of women with silent dialogue, haunting music, and body language, as the viewer becomes left to interpret the meaning behind women curled up symmetrically across each other on a sofa in lingerie with flower masks or passionately playing the piano in an ominous interior with a flower-headed spectator.
These mysterious works leave room for interpretation as the actors interact with improvised found objects or elaborately created props such as a group of hand-made stilted legs. The poetry and lack of direct storytelling leaves the viewer with an experience grounded in the interactions of texture, light and sound with talented silent actors. These dialogue-free films give homage to the early origins of filmmaking while grounding the artform based on visuals and audio influenced by music and natural surroundings. Anastasiia’s films create an enchanted experience, not in visual effects, but rather in dynamic acting of body language guiding the viewer towards the mystery of various environments, such as a remote shoreline or through a suggested haunted vintage interior.
Listening to the Ocean (pictured above) remains Anastasiia’s most playful work. The short arthouse film revolves around the investigation of the open shore through frolicking with the sand, engaging with rock and stones, and even wondering about the purpose of the actor’s own isolation, as if she expects to be interfered with. The film starts with a dashing of shallow submerged water being rushed against the ocean waves and leads to the actor walking across the sand, listening for other people or creatures, and then finding ‘toys’ within the rocks and splashing of the water. We could describe the film as an interpretation on the theme of isolation and the purpose of solitude and entrapment in an ideal environment. In addition, the woman performs in a costume dress which resembles the form of sea algae, perhaps symbolizing her as a spirit, guardian, or goddess of the ocean.
Anastasiia Marinich can be regarded as an innovative filmmaker and photographer who breaks beyond narratives and advances the purpose of conceptual art as a vehicle for metaphor and contemplative contemporary discourse. Performance art remains a very young artform and Anastasiia explores the directive to advance film and performance beyond limitations of traditional notions of image-making and storytelling. Her indirect approach, handcrafted props, and poetic metaphors focused on audio and silent acting creates art which remains rich in production value craft and critical thinking.
