Lesia
Topolnyk
2024 Fall Fellow
Lesia Topolnyk, a Dutch-Ukrainian architect, artist, researcher, and film
director, is based in The Netherlands and works internationally. Raised in
a constantly changing political environment in her native Ukraine and
educated as both an artist and architect, her practice is centered around a
fascination with the interconnectedness of global dynamics and invisible
forces that shape our physical realities.
Utilizing mediums such as installations, interventions, architectural designs, films, drawings and sculptures, Lesia makes ideas, dreams, and hidden stories tangible. Grounded in extensive research, each project unfolds as a unique expression of its context, seeking to provoke thought, evoke emotion, and spark dialogue, inviting engagement with the complexities of our world in new and unexpected ways.
Lesia has received numerous Dutch and international awards for her work, which has been exhibited and published internationally. Her project “Un-United Nations Headquarters” on the Annexed Crimean peninsula received the Archiprix Netherlands and Archiprix International awards in 2019. In 2022, she won the Prix de Rome, the most prestigious prize in The Netherlands for artists and architects under 35, with her project “No Innocent Landscape” about a mining village in Eastern Ukraine and its international significance. Lesia’s recent project, “The New Ecological Order – Transformation of nature in North Africa due to the European energy transition,” is part of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2024. Additionally, Lesia teaches and gives lectures in The Netherlands and abroad.
Utilizing mediums such as installations, interventions, architectural designs, films, drawings and sculptures, Lesia makes ideas, dreams, and hidden stories tangible. Grounded in extensive research, each project unfolds as a unique expression of its context, seeking to provoke thought, evoke emotion, and spark dialogue, inviting engagement with the complexities of our world in new and unexpected ways.
Lesia has received numerous Dutch and international awards for her work, which has been exhibited and published internationally. Her project “Un-United Nations Headquarters” on the Annexed Crimean peninsula received the Archiprix Netherlands and Archiprix International awards in 2019. In 2022, she won the Prix de Rome, the most prestigious prize in The Netherlands for artists and architects under 35, with her project “No Innocent Landscape” about a mining village in Eastern Ukraine and its international significance. Lesia’s recent project, “The New Ecological Order – Transformation of nature in North Africa due to the European energy transition,” is part of the International Architecture Biennale Rotterdam 2024. Additionally, Lesia teaches and gives lectures in The Netherlands and abroad.
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