PRAKSIS Development Forum (PDF) is a monthly peer-discussion group for creative people, offering a friendly, informal hub for practitioners to meet, share and discuss works in progress. 

In PDF #58, artist Yaniya Mikhalina will introduce the ongoing research that underpins Appeal to All Western Countries, a sound sculpture originally inspired by a Soviet archive document dealing with the status of Tatar and Bashqort indigenous languages. Drawing on her artistic and personal experience, Mikhalina will explore themes of form, context, production and temporality.

This session will be especially relevant for artists and others who are exploring translocality or time-based, decolonial archival and listening practices. It will be of interest to anyone engaged in long-term creative processes and the sharing of knowledge across geographical boundaries.

About Yaniya Mikhalina

Yaniya Mikhalina is a Volga Tatar film artist, researcher and organiser based in Oslo. Her practice ranges across moving-image media, multilingual writing, listening and archiving. Often bringing a spiritual dimension to documentary approaches, she seeks to explore cross-colonial realities and reparative futures. Venues that have showcased her work include the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Tallinn Art Hall, Trondheim Kunstmuseum and documenta 15’s Lumbung Cinema Program. Her PhD study Colonial Mәdness: Feminist-Indigenous Cosmologies is scheduled to be published by Torpedo Press in 2026.

Join the meeting

Three spaces are available for participants to present and discuss work-in-progress. Non-presenting discussion participants are also invited, and newcomers are very welcome.

Booking is essential. To reserve your place please email pdf@praksisoslo.org

Image credit: From Mansur Möhammatshin’s archive. Courtesy the artist