Victoria Verseau

Victoria Verseau (b. 1988) is a Swedish artist and filmmaker. In her works she explores themes such as body, memory, identity and social structures. The works are often based on her personal experiences of being trans and a new woman. Based on her own story, she examines larger existential questions; who we are, how we exist and who we aspire to be. There are references to poetry, spirituality and philosophy in the artistry. Through her art, she seeks to capture, preserve, and recreate the ephemeral — memories that have shaped identity. The constant movement of transition high-lights the invisible—layers of time and how energies from past events transmit into physical objects and places. There is often a contrast and ambivalence in the works, shifting between the serious and the comical, the intangible and the tangible, the numbing, demystified everyday and the ensouled world, and the surreal ambiance of dreams. She seeks to
highlight untold stories on the fringes of society, shaped by oppressive social structures. Her works deals with in-betweenness, loneliness, but also community, liberation, and insight. Through her works she explores ideas of transition and remembrance, as well as the ambivalence of telling personal stories while trying to maintain privacy. Victoria has a broad practice that includes sculpture, large-scale installations, performance, video works, feature and short films, fiction, and documentary. She is based in Stockholm where she earned a master’s degree at the Royal Institute of Art in 2020. She has recently presented solo exhibitions at Fotogalleriet Oslo ‘Hope is a dangerous thing for women like us’(2023), Bonniers Konsthall, Stockholm, ’Approaching a Ghost’(2022), and Uppsala Konstmuseum, ‘Engender my past’(2021). In the summer of 2024 Victorias debut feature film ‘Trans Memoria’ premiered at the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and was featured in outlets such as The Hollywood Reporter and Variety. In 2023, she was invited to present a work-in-progress version at the Cannes Film Festival, where she won an award. Both the feature film and the exhibitions are part of the overarching project ‘A Body of Ghosts,’ which centers on Victoria’s transition from boy to woman and the loss of her close friend Meril, who decided to end her life three years after the gen-der-affirming surgery that Victoria and Meril had in Thailand at the same time. In 2021, Victorias video work ‘Approaching a Ghost’ was selected by Bonniers Konsthall as the Swedish entry for Artists’ Film International and was screened at several art institutions worldwide, including Whitechapel Gallery London, Fundación Proa Buenos Aires, Hammer Museum Los Angeles, KWM Art Center Beijing, NBK Berlin, Para Site Hong Kong, Project 88 Mumbai, Crawford Art Gallery Ireland, GAMeC Bergamo, and Istanbul Modern. The same year the video work ‘A Ghost’s Gaze’ and the sculptural work ‘5, 6, 7, 8, 9 inches 12, 14, 16, 18, 20’ centimeters’were acquired in 2022 by the Public Art Agency Sweden and the Uppsala Art Museum. In 2017, she was the first trans person to receive the ‘Anna Award’ for her work in film, a grant awarded by Women in Film & Television and UN Women Sweden.