Tsaplya Olga Egorova

Olga EGOROVA (born 1968) is a film director, artist and educator. Originally from Saint
Petersburg, she was forced to leave Russia in 2022 following political persecution for her anti-war activities and has been based in Hamburg since 2023.
She is a co-founder of the internationally active art collective Chto Delat (What Is To Be
Done?), established in 2003.

Over the past two decades, the collective has developed a
distinctive practice at the intersection of film, theatre, visual art, pedagogy and political
research. Egorova’s films are conceived and directed as collective works, developed in close
collaboration with other members of Chto Delat as well as with researchers, performers,
composers and activists.

Her film practice combines Brechtian strategies of estrangement with musical and performative
forms, using cinema as a tool for investigating concrete historical and contemporary political
struggles. Many of her works take the form of musical social dramas, reactivating the tradition of
epic theatre within moving-image installations and film screenings.

Collective works directed by Egorova have been presented in international exhibitions and film
programmes and are part of major museum collections, including The Museum of Modern Art,
New York; Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centre Pompidou, Paris; MUDAM Luxembourg;
MUAC Mexico City; and KIASMA – Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki.

Her films and video works (produced within Chto Delat) have been screened at festivals and
curated programmes such as the International Short Film Festival Oberhausen, Videoart at
Midnight (Berlin), Volksbühne Berlin (The Idea of Communism: Philosophy and Art), and Two-
in-One Festival, Moscow.

Filmography

Perestroika Songspiel (2008, instal), Partisan Songspiel (2009, instal), The Tower. A Songspiel (2010, instal), The Lesson on Dis-Consent (2011, instal), Museum Songspiel (2011, instal), Shivering with Iris (2013, instal), The Excluded. In a Moment of Danger (2014, instal), It Did Not Happen With Us, Yet. Safe Haven (2016, instal), One Night in Social Network (2019, instal), Canary Archive (2022, instal), Songs of hope and despair. Performed by Boot, Fish, Foxtail, Rainbow, Dead Drummer, Muse-Leaving-Germany and other agencies (2025)