Bio - Iulia Filipovscaia

Iulia is originally from Siberia, Russia, She lived in London, UK for almost 20 years, having studied Fine Art at Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design (BA) and a Media degree in Image and Communication (MA) at Goldsmiths University in 2009. Recently, Iulia relocated and ran a shamanic gallery/ concept store in Uluwatu, Bali where all 76 framed prints that inspired the deck have been exhibited.

Back in UK, Iulia worked as a PA to a HNW art collector, at Hayward Gallery, Barbican, White Cube Gallery, Sotheby’s Institute of Art amongst others and most recently at the British Museum.

She curated over a dozen of solo, group and open calls exhibitions; exhibited at Zabludowicz Collection, The Koppel Project Gallery; sold at The Affordable Art Fair, London; presented her work at The Photographers Gallery for Folio Forum & Members Photo Forum, Photofusion in London; concluded Artist-in-Residence at Chateau d’Orquevaux in France & Air Ubud, Bali, Indonesia and The Koppel Project Hive in London.

Her proposal for the ‘Forging the Self’ is the basis of her latest show that took place at the Koppel Hive in 2021 together with three other female artists: https://youtu.be/2IqWVcOoC0I

In 2013 Filipovscaia founded a fashion label, LANA SIBERIE, that focused on slow and sustainable wears from vintage handwoven linen and cotton, hand embroidery and lace sourced from Russia and Ukraine.

Even before being awarded ABC Level 1 in Fashion and Textiles (Sewing and Textiles) in London in 2016, Iulia received a UKTI- TAP Grant given to British designers showcasing outside of UK that enabled her to present her collections at fashion weeks in Paris, London and Copenhagen.

Lana Siberie has participated in about 7 pop up shops in UK and the Netherlands; sold at concept stores LN-CC in London and Japan; worked on bespoke orders with clients like supermodel Natalia Vodianova (Naked Heart Foundation), Michael Hadida (Leclaireur) and been featured in L’Official Germany and The Lissome with Tim Burton's actress Lauren McCrostie.

Since 2011, Filipovscaia has pursued a career in entertainment, where she worked in film: Spectre (2015), Wonder Woman, Ready Player One (2018), Death of Stalin, Goodbye Christopher Robin (2017), Fantastic Beasts: The Crimes of Grindelwald - Witch(2018), A Private War, Detective Pikachu (2019), His Dark Materials (Witch), Cruella (2021), James Bond - No time to Die,The Last Vermeer; tv series: Eastenders, Vanity Fair, Lucky Man, Horrible Histories, Kiss Me First, Howards End, Guilt, Strike, Crown; modelling: OK, Jalouse, The Forumist, Rooms, Ala ChampFest, Pomp, The Huffington Post and Toni & Guy (hair) and commercials: BOLD-Smirnoff Ice Electric, Madam-Marriott, Knucklehead - McD’s Café, Axa Commercial, Academy - Beats Rugby World Cup, Disney Cars. By 2019 she completed an acting intensive course and received representation. Iulia is featured in the Imitation Game, Diplomat and worked as a body double of Jodie Comer (Villanelle)- Killing Eve.

Simultaneously, Iulia has been heavily investing into personal growth that was initially ignited by attending Trance Coaching by Roy Martina in Italy 2010. The year 14/15 has become a turning point on her path to spirituality, having completed her first Vipassana retreat. Since then she attended multiple silent retreats advancing to Satipatthana in 2022.

Being a conceptual artist and having an affinity with ancient and vintage objects, Iulia has inherited an understanding that all matter carries ancestral energy and traces of acquired meaning hidden in symbolical layering they carry, hence why she choose to work with mixed media, recycled objects, but mostly all matter that is made from nature to create shamanic sculptures and artefacts. She has spoken extensively about the importance of the ancestry and working shamanically in interviews and articles as well as delivering this message through talks and workshops, like ‘Becoming a Cloth/ Connecting to Fabric Consciousness (Meditation Workshop)’ with London Design Club in 2018 in London.

Moreover, Iulia has been certified in: 3 part Plant, Planet and Practical Alchemy course by Tirta Usada, Bali (2021), Essentials of Shamanic Divination/Extraction and the Way of the Shaman by UK Faculty of the Foundation for Shamanic Studies, initiated into Atma Kriya Yoga Level 1 and First Degree Reiki, Usui Shiki Ryoho. Filipovscaia has also been certified for completing the famous pilgrimage rooted in medieval origins Camino de Santiago (the Way of St. James), Camino del Norte in Spain. She made her way to other sacred sights around the world like Knossos Palace in Crete, Glastonbury & Avebury, Stonehenge, UK

As a young girl Iulia remembers cards in the hands of her late grandmother and thereafter in her mother’s. It wasn’t the tarot that mother used but the usual suits of the minor arcana so when Iulia set out to learn, it was going to be a lot more than just cards. She attended an advanced course of Mediumship and The Emotional Intelligence of Spirit at Arthur Findlay College, studied the Art of Andean Healing Workshop with Peruvian Curandero, Anthropologist and Archeologist, Dr Ruben Orellana, did Equine Therapy with Intuitive Horse, Alberto Villoldo’s Masterclass, Energy Medicine─A Shaman's Miraculous Toolkit, Dragon Healing with Momoyo, became a Solar Teacher having written he Knowledge Book all that in addition to Family Constellation therapy and multiple Craniosacral healing sessions and on top of 1 to 1 Tarot course.

This amalgamation of information informed a practice that is not too dissimilar to her art and is somewhat resembling what South American shamans call mesa, where Iulia uses a set of naturally made power objects along side crystals, tarot and sculptures and often any objects she feels guided to. Herein assembling a map of a person’s past, present and future, and intuitively divining a message.

As a master of image and its communication Iulia is a decoder and a voyager between the etherial/ the veil and the reality, a High Priestess, a keeper of secrets and a messenger in service of divinity as tarot would archetype her.

It is no wonder how the love of art and to be specific the image itself and what it communicates shaped Filipovscaia’s path back to spirit and nature, i.e. shamanism circling all the way back to Siberia where this practice was prevalent and nature carries a strong hold and power.

To see all of the work IF has been involved click the link here