Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva was born in Kavadarci in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Republic of North Macedonia) in 1971. In 1992, amidst the Yugoslav wars, she immigrated to England and pursued her higher education in the arts. After graduating from the Royal College of Art in London, she gradually established her self as a site-specific installation artist, shortlisted for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize (2001) and later showing at the Venice Biennale.
Site-specific installation artist Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva was born in Kavadarci in the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (now Republic of North Macedonia) in 1971. Mito Hadzi-Vasilev Jasmin, a Macedonian communist journalist and politician was her grandfather, and Petar Mazev, a Macedonian academic artist, recognised for bringing novelty to the post-war Macedonian art scene, was her uncle. In 1986, Hadzi-Vasileva relocated to Novi Sad in Yugoslavia (now Republic of Serbia), focusing her studies on graphic design at the Bogdan Šuput School of Design, completing her secondary education by 1990. With the intensification of the Yugoslav Wars, she returned to the Socialist Republic of Macedonia (then one of the six constituent republics within Yugoslavia). During the war, in 1992, she immigrated to England and enrolled at the Royal Central School of Speech and Drama in London. In 1993, she started a BA in Sculpture at Glasgow School of Art, Scotland, graduating in 1996, immediately followed by an MA in Sculpture at London's Royal College of Art, graduating in 1998. In 1995 she officially become a British resident and in 2004 she gained British citizenship.
Hadzi-Vasileva’s oeuvre encompasses various forms, including architectural interventions, audio, photography, sculpture, and video, to produce site-specific installations. She employs an extraordinary and eclectic mix of materials, spanning from the mundane to the highly unusual, and from ephemeral items to those of high value. This includes, but is not limited to, elements such as organic matter, edibles and valuable metals, ranging from caul fat to gold leaf. Her work reflects on a location’s distinct features, as well as a vast range of topical themes, including Christianity, community, cosmology, disease, ecology, geography, heritage, history, illness, landscape, nature, past, pathology, science, and technology. She is interested in exploring the intricate layers of a location and the negotiations imperative for executing works in often delicate environments.
Silentio Pathologia was the title of Hadzi-Vasileva’s exhibition for the Macedonian pavilion at the 55th Venice Biennale in 2013, which explored the historical spread of medieval plagues across Europe and paralleled contemporary concerns about global migratory diseases, such as coronavirus (unwittingly anticipating the Covid-19 pandemic). Presented in a Venetian palazzo, the exhibit blended a range of materials, including woven silk, silkworm cocoons, rat skins, and steel curtains, the inclusion of genuine animal skins used to highlight the global trade in animals and the global commodification of animal products. The exhibition embodied the artist's hallmark technique of transforming multiple, often recycled, objects into art installations, while ensuring the ethical treatment of animals. Art and Christianity are also often central themes in her work, and Hadzi-Vasileva exhibited again at the Venice Biennale in 2015, with the Vatican City at Pavilion of the Holy See Pavilion. In the UK, Hadzi-Vasileva’s Gilded Elm (2020), located in Brighton’s Preston Park, commemorates an elm tree which succumbed to Dutch Elm disease. The artist transformed the decaying tree by gilding its interior and thus preserving its legacy as the world’s oldest elm (planted at the beginning of the 17th century). Her 2021 project Breathing Again R&D was connected to her residency at the Biomedical Research Centre, University of Nottingham, where she observed the trials of Kaftrio, a transformative Cystic Fibrosis treatment. By shadowing medical professionals and collecting trial materials, she studied the experiences of patients and their families during the drug’s trials. Funded by the Arts Council of England, the project allowed Hadzi-Vasileva to craft new small-scale artworks that resonate with this pivotal medical advancement, while addressing ethical considerations related to biological materials and patient privacy.
Hadzi-Vasileva has received numerous awards throughout her career. She was a finalist for the Jerwood Sculpture Prize in 2001 and the following year she received the Pollock-Krasner Foundation award. The European Cultural Foundation presented her with the STEP Beyond Mobility Fund in 2009. In 2010, she was acknowledged by the National Assembly of Kavadarci, Macedonia, for her contributions to Fine Art in the city and was also a finalist for the Spitalfields Sculpture Prize. She received the Alexandra Reinhardt Memorial Award in 2013 for a collaboration with the Middlesbrough Institute of Modern Art (MIMA) and Engage. Subsequent awards include grants from the Wellcome Trust (2014-15), Golden Osten Award in 2016, Grand Prix in 2017, and funding from the Arts Council England over a number of years. Elpida Hadzi-Vasileva lives in Sussex, England and often exhibits and works in Brighton. In the UK public domain her works are held in several collections, including MIMA, Middlesbrough and The Women's Art Collection, Murray Edwards College, University of Cambridge.