Katharina Ya

*1990, USSR - Siberia - Moscow - Aarhus, Denmark

Katharina Ya is a photographer and visual artist based in Aarhus. Her practice moves between memory studies, spatial inquiry, and post-documentary strategies. Ya explores how spaces are claimed, interpreted, and emotionally processed, using photography as a tool for observation and a method for navigating new environments. Her long-term project Postcards from Aarhus brought together immigrants for monthly walks to examine how attention, curiosity, and image-making shape a sense of place. Working with the family archive and found photographs, she recontextualizes personal and anonymous histories, often confronting the presence of death, mourning rituals, and the unstable nature of remembrance.

work and projects

2024—ongoing, photographer at turkis, Aarhus, Denmark

2024, 2025, photographer at Aarhus Jazz Festival, Aarhus, Denmark

2025, videographer at the Before Eve project at Radar, Aarhus, Denmark

2024, curator and photographer of the Postcards from Aarhus project, Aarhus, Denmark

education

2024—ongoing, Professional Master's degree in Curating
Aarhus University (Aarhus, Denmark)

2022—2023, Fotografisk Skole (part of Byhøjskolen, Aarhus, Denmark)

2017—2018, Master of Arts in Cultural Management — Museum Management
The Moscow School for Social and Economic Sciences (Moscow, Russia)

residency

2023—2024, Useful Art for Communities

exhibitions