Geometry of Elusive Steps
The Geometry of Elusive Steps series directly transfers blank space and deviation into painting. The title itself contains an inherent tension: geometry points to order and surveying, while elusive implies escape, and steps are trajectories of movement. On the canvas, "letters turn into mountains within the mist"—grey ink masses resemble clouds, mist, and mountain forests, while thin black lines read like both remnants of writing and surveying paths. "White" becomes a kind of climate that slows and dampens both image and text, making them impossible to name with precision. During the days at Yanqi Lake, the artist's inner state of withdrawal found an external resonance—the mountain shadows in the mist and the grey-white surface of the lake seeped into the images.
Tut's work as a whole evokes what might be called the "white myth" of modernity—the way modernity disguises "white" as neutral and transparent, while in fact concealing the power of classification and appropriation. Her white is not transparent, but opaque; not a blankness waiting to be filled, but a white spot that protects unextracted experience; a psychic space sedimented by the body, sleep, mist, failed writing, and historical afterimages. For this reason, her work is often read as "Eastern" or "Zen," yet she does not begin from within Eastern landscape traditions; she starts from Cyrillic writing, architectural training, and diaristic practice, and only stumbles into landscape along the way. They are closer to Tarkovsky's mist—not enlightenment, but getting lost.
Born on 1982 in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Evgenia Tut (b. 1982). She lives and works in Saint Petersburg. In 2006 she graduated from the Saint Petersburg State University of Architecture and Civil Engineering with a degree in Architecture. Since 2018 she has maintained an active artistic practice and regularly participates in exhibitions. In 2022 she completed the Rodchenko School’s Kirill Savchenkov Transmedia Laboratory.
Her career highlights include participation in the Ars Electronica festival (2021); a residency at the GES-2 Center for Art Production “Svody,” V-A-C Foundation, Moscow (2022); and a nomination for the Sergey Kuryokhin Award in the “Best Work of Contemporary Art” category (2023). She is the author of the non-commercial solo project “1024,” supported by the Limonov Art Fondation (2024), and of the solo exhibition “Slow Shores” at MMOMA (2025). In 2025 she also took part in the main project of the International Ecobiennale “Skin of the Earth.” Evgenia Tut is the founder of the artists’ program “Tut Workshop.”
Her works are held in museum, private, and corporate collections, including the State Russian Museum, Garage Museum of Contemporary Art, Limonov Art Fondation, Ru Art’s Foundation, Swan Hellenic, and others.
Artist’s Statement
In my projects, I explore questions about the digital future and methods of evading total transparency. I expand the practice of “women’s writing” and “minor gestures”. My work actualizes the act of writing and employs spatial means to convey artistic statements. My creative method has been shaped by my architectural background, the study of classical calligraphy, and dance, as well as by an interest in archaic consciousness and nonverbal information transmission. I experiment with various techniques, working in graphics, painting, installations, and objects.
