by Maria Isserlis // Mar. 27, 2026
Kyiv-born, Norway-based artist Lesia Vasylchenko works across video, photography and installation, examining how technological infrastructures reshape perception, memory and historical time. Her research-driven practice moves between satellite imaging, synthetic media and media archaeology while drawing equally on Ukrainian folklore and personal histories. Through these intersections, Vasylchenko investigates what she describes as “chronopolitics”: the way time becomes structured, recorded and weaponized through technological systems. Her work often situates human experience within wider planetary and infrastructural temporalities, bringing together scientific research, speculative narratives and intimate storytelling.
On the occasion of her first institutional solo exhibition in Germany, ‘YesterLight – Sensing Ruptures of Time’ at Schinkel Pavillon, we spoke with Vasylchenko about the politics of time, technological perception and the role of memory in her work.
Lesia Vasylchenko: ‘YesterLight – Sensing Ruptures of Time,’ 2026, installation view at Schinkel Pavillon // Photo by Frank Sperling, courtesy of Schinkel Pavillon
Maria Isserlis: Ruptures of time are central to your artistic research and practice. In this exhibition you weave together different temporalities, exposing these ruptures while also creating a space where they can be bridged. Could you introduce the exhibition?
Lesia Vasylchenko: This exhibition brings together older works and newly produced pieces. In it I explore the notion of time and how time is measured. I’m interested in how observation technologies, especially satellite infrastructures, shape the way we perceive the world.
Today, sensing often happens beyond human perception. Satellites, remote sensors and algorithms continuously observe the planet, producing streams of data that no human eye directly witnesses. This is the domain of remote sensing: imaging at a distance, where vision is displaced into infrastructure and computation. These systems do not simply represent the planet; they reorganize how it is perceived. Images become datasets, surfaces become signals and time is embedded within the image itself. This form of vision is continuous, distributed and computational—where seeing is no longer an event, but an ongoing process. I’m interested in the tension between something that lasts only a moment and something that could last almost forever. In the exhibition, I montage different temporalities next to each other.
Instead of a single photographic moment documenting the environment, I use InSAR satellite imagery that captures four weeks—a continuous unfolding of vegetation growth across a vast weeping willow forest on the exposed bed of the Kakhovka Reservoir.
I also present material related to experimental data storage technologies, such as a 5D memory crystal produced with the Optoelectronics Research Centre in Southampton. The crystal is engineered to last for billions of years.
The viewer moves between these different scales of time and is confronted with the question of where we position ourselves as humans within these interconnected micro and macro temporalities.
Lesia Vasylchenko: ‘YesterLight – Sensing Ruptures of Time,’ 2026, installation view at Schinkel Pavillon // Photo by Frank Sperling, courtesy of Schinkel Pavillon
MI: The central work in the exhibition is the video ‘Chronosphere’ (2024). In it, we encounter many different kinds of image production, from found footage and the newest satellite imagery to gaming aesthetics and scenes from your own home and family life. You juxtapose highly polished images of extraction and ecocide with very intimate views of your kitchen. Could you walk us through your development process?
LV: ‘Chronosphere’ is a speculative narrative about a “court of time,” where time itself becomes a form of evidence.
I was interested in how temporal processes can be weaponized. For example, through slow violence, such as environmental destruction that unfolds over long periods of time, or through acceleration, where near real-time signal transmission—where speed translates into value—becomes a tool of power and control. Visually the work combines many different kinds of images. I used Telegram footage recorded on smartphones, footage filmed with professional cameras, satellite imagery and AI-generated images created through text-to-image systems.
I also built digital environments in Unreal Engine and directed scenes within them. Some of these environments are based on terrain extracted from Google Earth, for example lithium extraction sites in Bolivia and Zaporizhazha Nuclear Power Plant. The video moves between documentary material and constructed digital spaces.
It was important for me to reflect on a visual environment shaped by the continuous production and circulation of images—a world in which experience is structured through their constant flow. Images always carry traces of the technologies that produce them, and by looking at them we can often sense the time they belong to.
Lesia Vasylchenko: ‘Chronosphere,’ 2024, video still // Courtesy of the artist
MI: Your work engages with complex technological systems, but there is also a deeply personal dimension in your practice and in this exhibition, including the war in Ukraine, folklore and your family stories.
LV: Yes, that dimension is very important to me. When I had the opportunity to collaborate with scientists working on “eternal” data storage, the question emerged: what would you record if something could be preserved forever? I discussed this with friends and family, and eventually realized that what I would want to preserve is a human voice.
My grandmother is 93, and Ukrainian literature and poetry was a big part of our relationship while I was growing up. She often read stories aloud. At some point, I realized that I have no recording of my father’s voice and can no longer recall it, which led me to reflect on what it means to preserve memory. So I recorded my grandmother reading one of her favorite stories about a willow tree—a powerful symbol in Ukrainian folklore associated with memory and regeneration, and, in a hauntological sense, with the persistence of the soul within the tree.
In the video ‘Chronosphere,’ I recorded how long it takes my sister and my nieces to reach the shelter after the air raid alarm begins. The apartment is the one where I grew up, on the 15th floor, and the sequence lasts exactly as long as it takes to go from the apartment down to the shelter.
Lesia Vasylchenko: ‘YesterLight – Sensing Ruptures of Time,’ 2026, installation view at Schinkel Pavillon // Photo by Frank Sperling, courtesy of Schinkel Pavillon
MI: Sound also plays an important role in the work. Your practice is very collaborative and you often work with sound artists and musicians.
LV: For this project I worked with several sound artists from Ukraine, and each chapter of the video includes music composed by a different artist.
One of my long-time collaborators and best friends is Yurii Tymoshenko, who created one of the central sound pieces. Yurii has been serving in the Ukrainian military since the beginning of the full-scale invasion. For me it was very important that his work is present in the exhibition. Even though he cannot perform concerts right now, this collaboration allows his music to continue circulating and be heard.
Lesia Vasylchenko: ‘YesterLight – Sensing Ruptures of Time,’ 2026, installation view at Schinkel Pavillon // Photo by Frank Sperling, courtesy of Schinkel Pavillon
MI: Could you tell us more about your upcoming projects?
LV: I’m currently developing a new sculptural work for a group exhibition in Venice. The work is based on conversations with my friend Yurii about the experience of losing years of one’s life to war. He often speaks about the feeling that an important part of his life has been taken away and cannot be returned. In June, I will also present a video installation as part of the Kyiv Biennial at KW Berlin. After that I’m preparing a major solo exhibition at Kunstnerforbundet in Oslo. Also, next February I will present new work as part of the Future Generation Art Prize exhibition at the PinchukArtCentre in Kyiv.
Artist Info
Exhibition Info
Schinkel Pavillon
Lesia Vasylchenko: ‘YesterLight – Sensing Ruptures of Time’
Exhibition: Mar. 13-May 31, 2026
schinkelpavillon.de
Oberwallstraße 32, 10117 Berlin, click here for map
