"A look through wet eyelashes" Print

Tania Ruda (born 1978, Kyiv) is a Ukrainian visual artist, curator, and fashion photographer currently based in Prague, Czech Republic. Born into a family of artists, Ruda’s creative path was shaped by early exposure to visual art. She studied painting before turning to art history, which expanded her conceptual approach and deepened her understanding of visual narratives. A central theme in Ruda’s work is the exploration of the human body. Initially approached as a medium for expressing intimacy, vulnerability, and emotional resonance, the body in her recent works has acquired new, more complex connotations. The experience of war and displacement has profoundly transformed this exploration. The body now emerges as a site of survival, resistance, and memory—a fragile yet persistent imprint of life against the backdrop of violence and loss. Ruda’s photography delves into the tension between the physical and psychological states of being. In times of trauma, the body becomes the only tangible proof of existence, a point of connection between the internal and external worlds. Her work examines how bodily awareness offers a fleeting sense of security and wholeness in the face of existential disruption. Yet this sense of wholeness remains fragile, constantly threatened by the collapse brought on by violence and dislocation. Her images invite the viewer to reflect on how the human form, marked by experience, becomes a vessel for reclaiming identity and asserting vitality in the face of dehumanization.