BIO

Lyoubov Touinova was born in the Arctic region of Russia, in a scientific city. She grew up surrounded by music, chess, and dance — all of which she began practicing by the age of four. Her first art exhibition happened at six, and soon her paintings made their way into international collections.

Her artistic and intellectual interests have always reached beyond the aesthetic. Philosophy, mathematics, infinity, spirit, reproduction, ethics, waste, power, money — these are recurring subjects in her work. She is often drawn to paradoxes and complex systems, especially where personal stories meet systemic structures.

She studied at the Art Lyceum in St. Petersburg, followed by the Journalism Faculty of St. Petersburg State University, and later completed a Master’s degree in Philosophy at the same university. Alongside that, she trained in visual programming (ArchPolis, British Council), radical aesthetics (Moscow), scriptwriting (Union of Filmmakers), and theatrical producing (Petrozavodsk). She is also a certified hatha yoga teacher and created her own course on mudras.

In theatre, she worked as director, scenographer, performer, and human rights researcher. Her productions were staged in venues such as Electrotheatre, the Hermitage Theatre, and Theatre.doc. She’s especially interested in hybrid formats — digital scenography, immersive installation, and movement-based dramaturgy.

In cinema, she took on roles as screenwriter, producer, and director. She created inclusive films in Russian Sign Language, co-founded the Karelian Media Art Festival, and directed Healing in Kharkiv in 2017, while living in Ukraine. Her 2025 film New Optics explores perception, power, and altered realities.

Music is a central part of her practice. Her compositions range from noise and experimental electronics to voice-based ethno and improvisation. She plays piano, flute, and uses voice as an expressive medium. She collaborated with Valeriy Alakhov (New Composers). Since 2008, she’s developed Barbie Blaster — a digital avatar and entropy fighter.

Since 2007, she has also worked as a fashion and runway model for brands like JNBY, Yanis Chamalidy, Igor Gulyaev, Tara Jarmon, and others — including jewelry houses and opening shows in St. Petersburg.

She curated and produced educational programs and art residencies in Vyborg and Peterhof, participated in platforms like the Wrong Biennale, Ars Electronica, and CYLAND. Her augmented reality sculpture garden NY AR Garden was launched in the US. She is a member of the global feminist digital community Digigxl and heads the Multimedia section of the Artists' Union of Russia in St. Petersburg.

Her work blends systems thinking, speculative philosophy, and technology. She consults in cultural data economies, works with generative neural tools, and builds models for monetizing recycling. Her project $Permanent critiques dystopian biopolitics, power structures, and resource management — through a mix of visual art, theory, and real-world prototypes.

Lyoubov also plays competitive blitz chess and leads training sessions. Her physical practice and mental discipline are equally important to her process. She honors her family’s creative lineage — her great-grandfather, Kabish Siranov, was the first Kazakh film critic and director of the Almaty Film Studio.