Austrian artist Elena Kristofor’s works consisted of hand-processed pigment prints created using tumbleweed found in Deren Soum and photographs taken in the open, expansive steppe of Deren Soum, where she used three-sided vertical mirror to explore the dynamic tension between verticality and horizontality or could be seen as a submergence of contrasting images of openness and its fractions. Elena displayed her works in an abandoned house, juxtaposed with a site-specific installation, she created with a pile of tumbleweed, as a part of Nomad Spirit 2024 International Program held in Deren Soum of Dundgovi Province from September 21 to October 2, 2024.
Born and raised in Odesa, Ukraine, Elena Kristofor is a Vienna-based visual artist whose work digs into the dynamic tension between the open, expansive steppe and the vertical confinement of forests. These contrasting landscapes serve as metaphors for the themes she explores—alienation, threat, loss of identity, and the ongoing search for belonging. Her art acts as a reflection of both the physical environments that shaped her and the broader existential questions they evoke. Primarily working in photography and installation, Kristofor combines elements of architecture, drawing, and sculpture to investigate the boundaries between two- and three-dimensional spaces. Her practice is rooted in an intimate conversation with the natural world, where each project responds to her immediate surroundings and the landscapes she navigates. Much like the steppe and the forest—spaces of openness and enclosure—her art occupies the liminal space between nature and culture, permanence and fragility. Elena’s works have been displayed in over 60 exhibitions internationally in Austria, China, Romania, Denmark, UK, Ukraine, Germany and Serbia.
Funded by EUNIC, the Nomad Spirit – International Program was initiated by EUNIC Mongolia and its implementing members, the Alliance Française Oulan-Bator, the Austrian Embassy in Beijing, the Finnish Embassy in Beijing, and the Goethe-Institut Mongolia with the support of the EU Delegation to Mongolia with aim to raise public awareness of climate change through contemporary artistic practices, the program brought together over 260 participants, including 8 artists from 5 different countries, as well as local schoolchildren, residents, administrators, and visitors from Ulaanbaatar. The program was implemented by the Mongolian Contemporary Art Support Association and its affiliate Nomadic Red Corner International Residency and Deren Soum administration and secondary school.
*EUNIC — European Union National Institutes for Culture — is Europe’s network of national cultural institutes and organisations, with 39 members from all EU member states and associated countries. EUNIC Mongolia aims to develop strong and sustainable ties between cultural stakeholders in the European Union and Mongolia by engaging in activities that are driven by the global challenges we have to respond to together.
Photo credits: Chinbold Lkhagvasuren, Munkhjargal Jargalsaikhan
