Experiencing Interruptions?

Post-Iron

Official statement: In her provocative film, Ksenia Yurkova confronts the painful issues of cultural responsibility and its impact on political processes. By shedding light on lesser-known historical events and ceding the director's chair to leading political science experts, Yurkova crafts an experimental and uncompromising statement—a bitter pill we are compelled to swallow.
Too often, people overlook the historical processes unfolding before them. These processes connect forgotten events and crimes from the past, which hold vital lessons for the present. Through the insights of political science experts, Yurkova warns of the dangers in ignoring alarming and monstrous trends in hostile cultures, which tend to disguise themselves as progressive and humanistic.
The film underscores how new geopolitical challenges are driving us again into an inevitable clash of civilizations. It urges us to confront these challenges by relying on the most sobering expertise, mobilizing us to choose the right course of action with eyes wide open.

Inofficial statement: The film Post-Iron is a political satire that re-examines the genre of subversive affirmation. Its central subject of critique is the archetype of the "universal expert" — a figure who contributes not to knowledge, but to the affective glorification of conspiratorial narratives rooted in libidinal eschatology.

Duration 00:35:00 4K, Stereo, Colour. Language: English, Russian. Subtitles: English. 2025, Austria
Idea, Screenplay: Ksenia Yurkova | Camera A: Manon Pichon | Music: Brigitta | 3d Animation: Matthias Klien | Camera B: Ksenia Yurkova
Sound: Brigitta | Sound: Martin Breindl | Editing: Ksenia Yurkova
Set Design: Ksenia Yurkova Production: Ksenia Yurkova | Assistant: Enesi Mia | Assistant: Martin Breindl I Colour grading: Sascha Mühl
Expert Prof. Dr. Sepulcher Schmink: Peter Trzka | Expert Prof. Dr. Krebsgang Wasserfuller: Christian Schiesser | Expert Prof. Dr. Maties Verdünner: Federico Hewson | Dance Performer: Oleg Soulimenko | Scientist Alexander Bogdanov: Peter Belkin | Scientist Aleksei Gastev: Peter Belkin
Scientist Vladimir Vernadsky: Peter Belkin | Scientist Ilya Ivanov: Peter Belkin | Scientist Konstantin Tsiolkovsky: Peter Belkin

The Film Uses Excerpts From “The Poem of Anabiosis” by Alexander Yaroslavsky
Thanks to the On Air Studio, Vienna, Austria | Thanks to the AIR InSILo, Hollabrunn, Austria | Thanks to the Schleswig-holsteinisches Künstlerhaus, Eckernförde, Germany | The Film Was Created in the Frames of „Pixel, Bytes + Film 2024“ of the Ministry of the Arts, Culture, the Civil Service and Sport (BMKÖS) Austria
In Cooperation With Orf III – Kultur Und Information

  • Ksenia Yurkova
    Director
  • Ksenia Yurkova
    Screenplay
  • Manon Pichon
    Camera A
  • Ksenia Yurkova
    Camera B
  • Brigitta
    Music
  • Matthias Klien
    3D animation
  • Brigitta
    Sound
  • Ksenia Yurkova
    Editing
  • Ksenia Yurkova
    Set design
  • Enesi Mia
    Assistant
  • Martin Breindl
    Assistant
  • Sascha Mühl
    Colour grading
  • Peter Trzka
    Actor
  • Christian Schiesser
    Actor
  • Federico Hewson
    Actor
  • Peter Belkin
    Actor
  • Oleg Soulimenko
    Dance performer
  • Project Type:
    Animation, Experimental, Short, Web / New Media
  • Runtime:
    35 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    April 1, 2025
  • Country of Origin:
    Austria
  • Country of Filming:
    Austria
  • Language:
    English, Russian
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital, 3D animation
  • Aspect Ratio:
    16:9
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    No
  • Student Project:
    No
Director Biography - Ksenia Yurkova

Ksenia Yurkova (1984) is an artist, curator, and researcher living in Austria. She considers her leading artistic media to be text, photography, video, and installation. Yurkova started her practice as a researcher in the field of political theory and communication theory. The main focus of her interest for a long time was communication and language: the varieties of its substance, the possibility of conversion, its mythological aspect, stereotyping (the question of personal and political self-identification and identification by others), problems of memory, attitudes, and reliance. Lately, the artist has been researching the phenomenon of affect in its autonomous bodily emanation; in its personal and political registers. She focuses on how a stage of individual perception, to which one can relate memory, traumatic recollection, and problems of identity construction, transforms itself into affects of the political body. Coming a long way from political and cultural journalism, Ksenia settled into individual artistic and research practice through organising and curating cultural and art events, which allows the vital critical distance for observation and work with contemporary issues. Her approach is based on methods of language appropriation, over-affirmation, self-reflection, and self-criticism through ironic components inevitably added to the most pressing matters. As an artistic director, Yurkova worked in St. Petersburg-based exhibition centre Tkachi until it was closed due to political censorship. Nonetheless, Ksenia didn’t give up socially engaged practice and launched a festival-laboratory Suoja/ Shelter in Finland and an artist-in-residence research program, InSILo, in Austria with Emergency slots for the artists under political pressure.
Ksenia Yurkova has taken part in numerous shows and festivals worldwide, including Photoireland Festival '21; Backlight Festival'20; Athens Photo Festival '19, '17, '15; Krakow Photo Month '19; Grandprix Fotofestival '15; a screening at Documenta@15; three times has been nominated to Kuryohin Prize, was awarded stipends and awards from the Austrian Ministry of Culture and Sport, and by the Federal State of Lower Austria; has released several artist books. Her works are in public and private collections worldwide, mainly in Russia, Germany, France, Finland, and Austria.
Currently, she is pursuing a doctoral degree at the University of Applied Arts in Vienna.

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