Video essay by Mela Miekus and Salome Berdzenishvili, “Blacha & Gluvi: On Constructing the Surfaces of Post-Soviet Girlhood.” Originally presented during the exhibition by Raquel Luaces, “Navigating Pain: Grieving through Internet Aesthetics,” at post-office in Amsterdam (December 2025).
This work narrates a scroll through post-Soviet girlhood aesthetics, exploring their colors, forms, viral hashtags, and dominant imagery. The post-Soviet girl drinks black coffee and reads Dostoevsky in a room full of colorful carpets and patterns. She is misty and blurry, like the snow-filled landscape she appears in. She is Russian-coded in her looks and aesthetics. She is #slavicdoll. Her becoming mimics the post-Soviet landscape and materials; she becomes through a process of deindividualization, smoothing, and erasure.
Salome Berdzenishvili is an affiliated researcher at the Institute of Network Cultures and a PhD researcher at the Leibniz Institute. Her research interests lie at the intersection of memory studies, digital cultures, and post-socialist subjectivities.
Mela Miekus is an Amsterdam-based writer and researcher with a background in art theory and curating. Her research practice centres around contemporary art and internet cultures with a focus on the politics of aesthetics, and online girlhood. She holds a Master in Curating Art and Cultures from the University of Amsterdam (2025). She was a curator-in-training at the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam (2024-2025). In 2025/26, she is a researcher at INC. More information on www.melamiekus.com.