greetings, my name is Hannah Berestizhevsky, also known as Mofuta. Mofuta emerged in 2009, during the final project of the bachelor of arts (BFA), which I completed that year in ILIS, Illinois Usa.
Mofuta means Variety- it is a word in a language spoken in south africa - Sesotho. I’ve been attracted to visual expression and experiments since I can remember (not that memory should be trusted.
) I started drawing murals at the age of 2 using mostly crayons on the white walls of the house, at the age of 5 experimented with water color and later on some photography. Took art classes in school as well as painted in artist’s studios and in 2018 I completed the master of arts (MFA) studies at the university of barcelona, spain.
The studies focused on investigation and production of contemporary art. . or in other words. . understand and justify why I do what I do. Currently located in Barcelona. Was born in 1988, Ukrain and in 1989 Immigrated to Israel.
When I moved to Barcelona in 2016 I’ve opened my studio “MOFUTA studio gallery”. The space is multifunctional, while most of the time it serves as my studio, it has also metamorphosed into an exhibition space where 13 exhibitions were made.
While in my work I employ a number of different mediums, My focus is on painting, video and performance. Considering the core of my artistic formation, painting is certainly the foundational medium for my creative process; it is for this reason that painting, with its theoretical and practical characteristics, has heavily influenced my use of other mediums and affected the approach to my creative process.
Every painting is a result of a performance, an action done by the artists, however its a performance that usually have no spectators, therefor it exists only as a the final result, a painting.
Through the production of art, I aiming to penetrate the viewer’s subconscious, as well as mine, by creating a meditative state or sensation that provoke contemplation. some of my works wish to envelop the viewer's consciousness and invite the audience to delve into the work and ‘transcend’ both themselves and the work of art itself.
Many of my works explore the human and search in nature as a source of inspiration. Human beings are not social beings but rather ‘sui generis’ creatures; enclosed in their solitude and, at times, in what I have come to call the ‘self-inflicted isolation’.
Using the body as a basis for criticism addressed to human social behaviors, I also represent the physical sphere as a political tool or a reflection of a social phenomenon.
