Rethinking Eastern Europe at Photo London 2026

The artist collective Rethinking Eastern Europe has been invited to participate in the eleventh edition of Photo London in its new location at Olympia in Kensington. The curated presentation provides a cross-section of creative approaches to documenting political and cultural transition based on individual and shared narratives.
Curator Zula Rabikowska remarks on the group’s objectives:
“At a time of ongoing socio-political shifts, it is vital to create space for artists who operate across both real and imagined borders. Rethinking Eastern Europe pushes back against reductive views of the region as a single, unified entity, instead emphasising its layered complexity and diversity, and enabling new, self-defined narratives to take shape.”
The showcase of photographic works by 12 artists ties in with the fair’s focused selection of Central and Eastern European galleries and highlights the region’s diversity and ongoing transformation with contemporary works that reflect how identities are shaped, negotiated and reclaimed across borders.
Grandmothers feature prominently as the symbolic link between past and present with Alexandra Joanna Baker commenting on the role of women in patriarchal society, while Michaela Nagyidaiová traces the legacy of exile through her grandmother’s experience of forced migration, and Magda Kuca applies historical photographic techniques to illustrate the interconnection between memory, folklore and technology.
Slavic mythology and Eastern European rituals also inform the practice of Marcelina Amelia who participates with solo works and as part of Grupa Łono. With notions of home and belonging a recurring theme throughout the presentation, Ksenia Kazintseva specifically explores superstitions related to corners in Eastern European homes and their connection to natural forces.

Family memories are integral to the respective practices of Zsuzsanna Ida Papp, Vera Hadzhiyska and Zula Rabikowska who work with self-portraiture and performance to document aspects of intergenerational trauma, ranging from disrupted ancestries to institutional control of women’s bodies. Maria Gvardeitseva illustrates the role of nature in absorbing and preserving histories of trauma in her poetic exploration of Holocaust mass grave sites across the region.
In her photographs of suburban landscapes Paulina Korobkiewicz illustrates the aesthetic effects of merging East and West, while Diana Serban explores a rural home’s resistance to change, and Laura Bivolaru captures the anticipation of irreversible change along the route of a proposed motorway.
All come together to provide a compelling snapshot of the diverse talent emerging from Eastern Europe and its diasporas.

Rethinking Eastern Europe was founded in 2024 by Polish visual artist Zula Rabikowska, and developed in collaboration with Vera Handzhiyska, Ksenia Kazintseva, Paulina Korobkiewicz and Diana Serban among others. The collective amplifies voices from Central and Eastern Europe, the Balkans and the diaspora to challenge simplified narratives of “Eastern” Europe.
Particularly committed to expanding the visibility of artists from historically underrepresented regions the group is made up of 50 visual artists from across Poland, Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia, Czechia, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Croatia, Serbia, Russia, Bulgaria, Germany, Georgia, Moldova, Belarus and Denmark, as well as the UK and the USA.
Rooted in lived experiences of migration and post-socialist identity, they explore themes of memory, belonging, intergenerational history and shifting geopolitical landscapes.