Svetlana Romanova Named Future Great 2026 by New Red Order for Indigenous Filmmaking

Svetlana Romanova, an artist from Yakutsk with Sakha/Even heritage, has been chosen by the New Red Order collective for the ArtReview's Future Greats 2026 feature. Her artistic focus revolves around the representation of Indigenous cultures. After her departure from Russia in 2022, Romanova's work titled Season of Dying Water, created between 2015 and 2022, critiques the erasure of history. Her 2024 film, Voyage of Jeanette, which was shown at e-flux in New York, merges environmental sounds with a score by Abiboss and incorporates local memories, such as her neighbor Simeon’s apartment serving as an informal museum. Romanova also addresses colonial viewpoints and the effects of the Ukraine war on Indigenous men in Yakutia. She is a Film Study Center fellow at Harvard University for 2025–26.