Photography by Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair

Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair
Performing History
Public Commemoration of World War II in the Context of the Russo-Ukrainian War

German; 318 pages; 14.8 × 22.5 cm; 30 black-and-white illustrations.
Original title: Geschichte performen. Öffentliches Gedenken an den Zweiten Weltkrieg im Zeichen des russisch–ukrainischen Krieges.
Bielefeld: transcript, October 2024.
www.transcript-verlag.de

Ritualized commemorations, spontaneous demonstrations, and political actions: this book examines public assemblies that took place in the urban space of the western Ukrainian city of Lviv from the outbreak of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014 until its escalation in February 2022 and that recalled World War II. As condensed forms of communication, these events reveal how various populations and interest groups negotiate Ukraine's complex history. By immersing readers in specific situations, moods, and representations, the book offers insights into contemporary Ukrainian identities rooted in the idea of a shared past.
Beyond analyzing the local context, the author identifies two divergent interpretive approaches established during the post-war period by opposing political systems to address the extreme violence of World War II. Central to this ideological divide is the question of how the Holocaust—as a specific event directed against Jews—was treated and integrated into historiographical frameworks. By focusing on how different groups in Lviv address Holocaust memory, the study illuminates how these Cold War legacies continue to influence the present.
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Photography by Sebastian Koeck

Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair
History and Other Objects

Texts by Anna Matveeva, Katalin Timár, David Quigley and a conversation between Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair and Astrid Peterle
Graphic Design by Atelier Liska Wesle
English, 160 pages, 19 × 27 cm, numerous illustrations in color, softcover
Special edition (20 + 5): cover with handmade silkscreen print
Vienna, SCHLEBRÜGGE.EDITOR, May 2020.
www.schlebruegge.com

This publication documents a selection of works from the past ten years and links different work groups of with one another. As different as the media in which Shapiro-Obermair works are—painting, sculpture, graphics, but also video and photography—her projects always take the same topics as a starting point or eventually return to them. The artist links historical and art-historical knowledge production and investigates the interrelations between ideology and form. Based on biographical experiences, she repeatedly explores the question of which channels shape identities—including artistic ones—and what visual expression this entails. The found and the documentary form their normal vocabulary just as much as the gestural or the concrete. The publication pays special attention to the artist’s graphic works, which are otherwise rarely shown and often taken from the series’ context.

Photography by Simona Rota

Soviet Modernism 1955–1991
Unknown History

Edited by Architekturzentrum Wien
Katharina Ritter, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair, Dietmar Steiner, Alexandra Wachter

With text by Rasim Aliyev, Ruben Arevshatyan, Vladimir Belogolovsky, Elke Beyer, Gamal Bokonbaev, Boris Chukhovich, Anatolie Gordeev, Marija Drėmaitė, Philipp Meuser, Rusudan Mirzikashvili, Rustam Mukimov, Ruslan Muradov, Mart Kalm, Andreas Kappeler, Felix Novikov, Katharina Ritter, Vaidas Petrulis, Maija Rudovska, Oleksiy Radynski, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair, Yuliya Sorokina, Dietmar Steiner, Iliana Veinberga, Alexandra Wachter, Dimitrij Zadorin.
This book is published on the occasion of the exhibition 'Soviet Modernism 1955–1991. Unknown Stories' 07.11.2012 to 25.02.2013 at the Architekturzentrum Wien
Zurich, Park Books, 2012

The present book shifts the perspective that Russia has erpetuated until now, placing the architecture of all other Soviet republics in the center of the study. Accordingly, our main concern in compiling the essays was to present the contribution of local experts for each country. The result is a eterogeneous collection of analyses, retrospectives and case studies in which the personal experience of this epoch resonates and others that address this subject matter with a certain distance. Texts of the ‘young  generation’, which sometimes approach the legacy in a more unburdened way can be found next to texts which are still imbued with the tone of the Soviet system. As an important complement to the texts on regional developments and specificities, the contributions by Elke Beyer and Philipp Meuser offer insights into the Soviet urban planning discourse as well as the serial mass housing projects and the related centralistic organization of architecture and building.

Photography by Ulrike Boehm

Das große Moskau, das es niemals gab: Bauten der sowjetischen Avantgarde im zeitgenössischen Moskau
The Great Moscow, that Never Was: Buildings of the Soviet avant-garde in contemporary Moscow

Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair, Wolfgang Obermair [Ed.]
With contributions by Nikolai Assejew, Kirill Faradzhev, Sergei Nikitin, Iwan Sablin, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair and photographs by Ulrike Boehm, Vera Faber, Julia Jungfer
Germ./Russ., 204 p., 16,5 × 21,3 cm, numerous color and b[&]w images, paperback
Vienna, SCHLEBRÜGGE.EDITOR, 2008.
www.schlebruegge.com

The volume documents architecture of the Soviet avant-garde in Moscow and the present situation. Besides four controversial essays by younger generation Russian authors and a narrative by N. Aseyev of 1925, the book contains an extensive illustrated section. The main focus is on the building types of the 1920s: working-men’s clubs, canteen kitchens, community houses, bread factories, garages, public schools. Many of these so-called “Buildings of the Second Plan” were rediscovered only recently. The publication responds to today’s question of conservation or demolition with a psychograph of a Moscow that never existed. The editors offer insights into the current discourse as a platform for the necessary and in Moscow still outstanding discussion on architectural heritage and urban space.

Selected exhibition catalogues and image contributions
Vlatka Horvat: by the means at hand, exh. cat., Vlatka Horvat, Antonia Majaca, Kate Sutton (eds.), Archive Books: Berlin 2025, p. 88.
Tombola VII at ES49, Terese Kasalicky, Heti Prack (eds.), Vienna 2024, p. 14–15.
Talking Studios, exh. cat., Luisa Kasalicky, Suse Krawagna, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair, Martina Steckholzer, Gerlind Zeilner, Judith Zillich and Christina Zurfluh  (eds.), Revolver Publishing: Berlin 2022, pp. 30–37, 84–85, 86, 88.
Die ersten 30 Jahre – Photographie, Anja Manfredi, Schule für Künstlerische Photographie, Wien (ed.), Fotohof edition: Salzburg 2020, pp. 488–491.
Muliple Singularities, exh. cat., Jelena Micić, Anastasiya Yarovenko (eds.), Academy of fine arts Vienna: Vienna 2020, pp. 36–39.
Ve.Schheft Nr. 21 2018/19, Martin Vesely (ed.), Vienna 2020, pp. 14–17, 20–24.
With View to the Sea, exh. cat., Wolfgang Obermair, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair (eds.), Vienna 2019, pp. 18–21.
Diagonale’19 Festival des österreichischen Films, Graz, Czernin Verlag: Vienna 2019, p. 141. 
Ji.hlava film catalogue, Matčej Metelec (ed.), DOC.DREAM services, Jihlava, 2018, pp. 104–105.
the Village and the Revolution, exh. cat., Simon Mraz (ed.), Austrian Cultural Forum: Moscow 2018, pp. 794–799.
Black Bridge Off, Anna Hofbauer, Bianca Regl (eds.), Verlag für Moderne Kunst: Vienna 2018, pp. 260–265, 272.
35. Österreichischer Grafikwettbewerb, exh. cat., Nina Tabassomi (ed.), Taxispalais – Kunsthalle Tirol: Innsbruck 2017, p. 11.
The Five Moons: Return of the Nameless and Unknown, exh. cat., Pyeongchang Biennale 2017: Pyeongchang 2017.
Kunstwerke für das Leben, auct. cat., Caritas der Erzdiöse Wien (ed.), Dorotheum: Vienna 2016, p. 108.
4. André Evard-Preis für konkret-konstruktive Kunst, exh. cat., kunsthalle messmer: Riegel am Kaiserstuhl 2016, p. 79.
Award Winners Exhibition 2015, exh. cat., Patrick Urwyler (ed.), Chimera-Project Gallery: Budapest 2016.
Über Malerei, Manisha Jothady, Luisa Kasalicky (eds.), Academy of fine arts Vienna: Vienna 2015.
Tales of 2 Cities, exh. cat., Astrid Peterle (ed.), Jewish Museum Vienna: Vienna 2015, pp. 44–59.
Between the Volga and the Danube: the album, Moscow 2015.
[silence] – A Holocaust Exhibition, exh. cat., Katalin Timár (ed.), Ludwig Múzeum Budapest: Budapest 2014, pp. 100–103.
Anton Faistauer Preis 2014, exh. cat., Galerie im Traklhaus: Salzburg 2014. 
Vier Jahre Ve.Sch ungefähr…, Martin Vesely (ed.), Vienna 2012. 
Gyeonggi Creation Center Residency 2011, Gyeonggi Museum of Modern Art: Ansan-si, Gyeonggi-do 2012. 
32. Österreichischer Grafikwettbewerb, exh. cat., Galerie im Taxispalais: Innsbruck 2011, p. 40–41. 
Report – Magazine for Arts and Civil Society in Central and Eastern Europe, Erste Bank, Issue 1/2009, www.kontakt.erstegroup.net, 2009. 
Archive in Residence. Vienna – Bucharest, Anton Ovidiu, Hohenwarter Julia (eds.), Vienna 2008.

Articles and text contributions
Shapiro-Obermair, Ekaterina. “Contested Ground: Public Commemorations of the Shoah in Lviv”, in: Eastern European Holocaust Studies, 2024, S. 1–19.
Wachter, Alexandra, Shapiro-Obermair,  Ekaterina, “From Soviet to Post- or Anti-Soviet: two L’viv museums of war in search of a new Ukrainian narrative of World War II”, in: Laboratorium 2018, 10 (2), pp. 52–79.
Wachter, Alexandra, Shapiro-Obermair, Ekaterina, “Territory of Terror. Observations on the musealization of violence in Western Ukraine”, in: Cultures of History Forum, Imre Kertesz Kolleg, Uni Jena, Januar 2017.
Katharina Ritter, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair, Alexandra Wachter, “Preface”, in: Hintergrund 2013 (54), 5–9.
Shapiro-Obermair, Ekaterina, “Framing structures of the collective memory”, in: Motel Trogir: it is not future that always comes after, Nataša Bodrožić, Saša Šimpraga (ed.), Zagreb, Eindhoven 2016, p. 205.

Interviews
Daria Gordeeva (December 16, 2025). “Performing History – Interview with Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair”, in: PoSoCoMeS Blog. Retrieved December 17, 2025 from https://posocomes.hypotheses.org/641.
Astrid Peterle, “Ekatrina Shapiro-Obermair in conversation with Astrid Peterle,” in: History and Other Objects, Ekaterina Shapiro-Obermair (ed.), SCHLEBRUEGGE.EDITOR: Vienna 2020, pp. 64–74.
Astrid Peterle, “The story/stories of objects. A conversation with Ekatrina Shapiro-Obermair,” in: Tales of 2 Cities, exh. cat., Astrid Peterle (ed.), Jewish Museum Vienna: Vienna 2015, pp. 48–59.