about public fiction labs
„Understanding speculation as unfounded ultimately means surrendering to what is given instead of discovering new possibilities in the present.”
Blurb of the book series SPECULATIONS
by Merve Verlag Berlin
public fiction labs was founded in 2019 by Aleksandra Roth-Belkova and Lina Theodorou. The basic idea of the project series is based on the philosophical currents of the New, or Speculative Realism, which deals with ideas concerning to new ways of living on Earth. Our projects are speculations on social issues that have an urgent need for a new realism.
Image @Aleksander Deineka, 1930
track the newsAleksandra
Roth-Belkova
project founder
born in Saint Petersburg, Russia.
Studies
1989-95 studied art at the State Academy of Art and Design in Saint Petersburg, graduated in glass class (diploma with distinction).
1996-2000 studied Visual Communication at the Berlin University of the Arts (UdK).
Professional experience
2000-2006 as Senior Art Director at Scholz & Friends (Berlin), projects for clients among others Doctors Without Borders, Berliner Zeitung, Bertelsmann Stiftung, DaimlerChrysler AG, FAZ, Mercedes-Benz, Messe Frankfurt and Mitsubishi Motors.
She has won numerous creative prizes and awards for Art Direction, such as Cannes Lions, London International Advertising Awards, and others.
Since 2006 freelance art director, copywriter and curator.
Since 2016 she has been chairwoman of the art association The Glass Project e.V. In this role she was responsible for fundraising, organization and implementation of the projects “GlasGrenze” (2017) and “The Element of Change” (2017-18), in which international Artists developed art installations together with formerly homeless residents of a social institution in Berlin-Moabit.
Lina Theodorou
project founder
Born in Athens, studied at the School of Graphic Arts and Creative Studies in Athens, the School of Fine Arts in Athens (Sculpture) and the School of Fine Arts, Sculpture and Multimedia in The Hague.
She has been working as a visual artist and curator in Berlin since 2010. She is the co-founder of the international video art platform intothepill.
Exhibitions in the Bozar, Center for Fine Arts, Brussels, the National Museum for Contemporary Art, Athens, the Deste Foundation, Athens, the Landesmuseum Johanneum, Graz, the Museum Fridericianum, Kassel and at the Venice Biennale.
In her art she addresses socio-political issues such as identity politics and women’s rights. Among other things, she works with videos and installations on topics such as the representation of violence in the media, the need for security in public spaces, or fear of alienation and exclusion. In her “speculative fiction” projects she creates speculative situations in which she examines a possible reality as a model.