Natalia Papaeva

Natalia Papaeva is a visual/time-based artist born and raised in Buryatia (Eastern Siberia) and based in the Netherlands. Her artistic process is set in motion with text – read or written – which then translates into movements, images, sounds. Often, her endangered birth language materializes in her practice. It brings the Buryat language from the domestic sphere into the public realm and by doing so she resists the notion of endangerment.

She holds a BA from the Royal Academy of Art, The Hague. In 2018, she won the TENT Rotterdam Award and the IMD Department Prize from KABK for best video work. In 2025, she received two awards for her sculpture, The Fire in My Mind: the Frans de Wit Prize and the Business Platform Schipholweg Prize. From 2022 to 2024, she was a resident at the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. Her work has been exhibited at HKW, M HKA, Kasseler Kunstverein, the Asian Biennial, and the Ulaanbaatar Biennial, and is held in both institutional and private collections internationally.