The day the war started, it felt like the streets of Moscow, the houses, the people and the atmosphere got poisoned, like my Russia fell terminally ill. I couldn’t breathe, so I left my home, wanting to help others fleeing the war.

Every day I feel this war inside of me. I feel it when I help the refugees from Ukraine. It hurts when a random person asks me where I come from. And I feel guilt, for my own tears are insignificant compared to those who lose their homes because of real bombs and bullets.

I love my home country and hate the regime that poisoned it.

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Paulina Siniatkina is an artist and activist who works with a form of autobiographical reflective research. Her socially-oriented practice is driven by her personal experience of surviving tuberculosis in 2015 and is dedicated to fighting stigma and rethinking what is considered "normal." Paulina’s work delves into collective trauma and social taboos through various art mediums, including painting, sculpture, installation, performance, and film.

Paulina was born in 1989 in Moscow, Russia. She graduated from the Moscow State Academic Art Institute named after Surikov and holds a Master's degree in socially engaging arts from ArtEZ University of The Arts. She lives and works in Amsterdam. Her works are in the collections Stop TB Partnership (Geneva), the Bill & Melinda Gates Medical Research Institute  (Boston), Oxford Immunotec (London), FIND (The Netherlands), as well as in private collections worldwide.  

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