ira (irina) komissarova

European-based Scenographer and meta-disciplinary artist (she, her)
IRA — not peace. KOMISSAROVA — not control.
My name carries tension.
"Ira", in Latin languages, means rage — a stark contrast to its root, Irina, derived from the Greek eirḗnē (peace). "Komissarova", a surname often misread through the lens of Soviet history, echoes with the legacy of power, order, and revolution. But in French or Catalan, commissaire / comissari means something else entirely: a curator — one who shapes meaning, gives form, and creates context.
This duality is the ground I stand on: Between force and fragility, authority and authorship, politics and poetics.
My scenography emerges from this tension — not as background, but as statement. Not as design, but as resistance.
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statement.

  1. Art is in the perspective.
  1. The world itself is a stage.
  1. Spatial lived experiences cannot be forged.
Scenography, in this context, is not a discipline of illusion, but a lens — a way of thinking, sensing, and witnessing. It emerges not as background, but as a critical artistic force that reshapes how we perceive space, time, and each other.
formal bio.
Irina Komissarova-Slavgorodskienė (1989, Moscow) is a European-based scenographer and meta-disciplinary artist working at the intersection of performance, installation, and research-based practice. She is a graduate of the Norwegian Theatre Academy — one of Europe’s leading experimental theatre schools — where she developed a scenographic approach rooted in spatial dramaturgy, perception, and embodied experience.
Her path into scenography was shaped by a diverse educational background, beginning with studies in Interior and Environmental Design at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Moscow, followed by a BA in Scenography from the Vilnius Academy of Arts, and further enriched by programs at the Meyerhold Centre and the Moscow Art Theatre School.
In 2025, she completed a year-long internship at Studio Tosatti in Naples, working closely with renowned Italian artist Gian Maria Tosatti — who represented Italy at the 2022 Venice Biennale and served as Artistic Director of the Rome Quadriennale. During her time at the studio, Komissarova was part of the team behind Paradiso, a large-scale site-specific project presented at Milano Art Week and Milano Design Week 2025.
Her portfolio includes scenographic work for theatres, as well as installations and artistic interventions in public spaces in Vilnius, Milan, Prague, Barcelona, and other European cities.
She currently develops independent performative and audiovisual projects that explore atmosphere, attention, and the ways we communicate through space.
info.
feel free to text me in english, lithuanian or russian
interviews.
publications.
 
ARTICLE for Magazine on questions of scenography, scenic technics and technology, architecture, education and management in the field of performing arts  (© «Сцена», No4 (96) 2015).

«Pushkin’s Tales» by Robert Wilson

Irina Komissarova «How it was» Irina Komissarova, a young artist, who was present at the performance’s rehearsals, writes about the work on the performance, Wilson’s method, ways of constructing the artistic space and collaboration with Russian actors.
keywords: Theatre of Nations, Robert Wilson, Alexander Pushkin, Yevgeny Mironov, Darya Moroz, Seseg Hapsasova, Olga Lapshina, Alexander Stroyev, AJ Vassbard, Julia von Leliva, Manuell a Halligan. http://the-stage.ru/upload/iblock/cfe/cfef5c5199f06bd80785d3fa55961ea5.pdf (full version in Russian)
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SCENOGRAFE. Storia della scenografia femminile dal Novecento a oggi by Anna Maria Monteverdi (© Dino Audino 2021)
This book about females in scenography contains a chapter about my collaboration with Oscaras Korshunovas / Chapitolo secondo. Registi/autori e scenografe (Italian language).
https://www.audinoeditore.it/libro/9788875275105
Video preview
 
 
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