Elena Kristofor (UA/AT, b. 1983) is a visual artist from Odessa, Ukraine, now based in Vienna, Austria. Working with photography, installation, and site-specific interventions, she explores human inscriptions in the landscape, addressing notions of foreignness, displacement, and identity. Educated at the Academy of Fine Arts Vienna and TU Wien, Kristofor’s work combines photographic, drawn, and sculptural elements. Her work has been shown internationally, including at the Kyiv Biennial and Lentos Linz. In 2025, she was the recipient of the Austrian Art Alumni Award.
Here, Kristofor presents an immersive installation exploring the radical ambivalence of the geranium flower. Universally, the geranium is often used as a symbol of home and domestic security; in the artist’s homeland, its meaning has been violently reversed, with Russian kamikaze drones destroying civilian infrastructure across Ukraine under the cynical codename “Geran-2.” The centrepiece of Kristofor’s installation is a 10-metre canvas – sprawling from wall to floor, and coloured with the organic traces of hammer-smashed geraniums in a metaphor for a shattered home. Above, a framed series of aerial photographs of pre-war Ukraine are layered with turmeric prints, their glass engraved with impressions of the military front lines.
