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“The House My Grandfather Built” is the second book of Xenia Nikolskaya. It is a story of her family, her childhood, perfect love of her grandparents, devotion, changing the way of living to stay close to the family and bitter irony of life in a totalitarian regime. History began in the 30s and still continues. Xenia’s Grandfather as a political prisoner was sentenced for work in the Gulag in Kolyma. After serving his sentence, he and the author’s grandmother came back to Saint Petersbourg and built the title house. In the book souvenirs, pictures and documents are presented, which show the history of their family and how powerful impact Soviet Union had on their lives. It’s also a documentation of a journey from 2012, when Xenia with her mother came to the place of the author’s mother birth, to the house her grandfather built.
Xenia Nikolskaya is a photographer, visual artist, curator and educator of russian-swedish origin. She graduated Russian Academy of Fine arts in Saint Petersburg and Sunderland University in the United Kingdom. Her works were presented in 20 individual and 40 collective exhibitions all over the world incl. Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm, Sweden; The State, Munich, Germany; Townhouse Gallery, Cairo, Egypt; Mathaf Arab Museum of Modern Art, Doha, Qatar; L’institut du Monde Arabe et Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France. She was a curator of 50 exhibitions. She also wrote a few books incl. “Anatoly Garanin, Soviet Union”, “Dust” or “The House my grandfather built”.