Elina Kulikova (born in St. Petersburg, Russia) is a theatre director, performer, and writer working at the intersection of musical and political theatre, writing and performance.

“In theatre, I explore the possibility of translating memory and forgetting into a performative language. How can we speak about war and grief? How can we approach what paralyses and subjugates memory? I mix autobiography and philosophy, historical documents and artistic research, using the theatrical experience as a space for conversations that are impossible in ordinary life,” says Kulikova.

Following the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Elina fled the Russian Federation and now continues her work in a new geographical and political context. Her recent projects focus on state repression and war, examining their impact on intergenerational memory, corporeality, and identity. Drawing on testimony, poetry, historical material, and sociological analysis, her work situates personal narrative within broader political structures.

Together with artist and activist Dima Efremov, Elina Kulikova initiated La Trilogie de la Guerre, a musical theatrical trilogy developed. Conceived as a processual project, the trilogy produces one performance per year for the duration of the war between 2023 and 2025. The works trace both the evolving course of the war and the artists’ shifting responses to it, combining political documentation with autofiction. In these performances, the artists speak—and sing—in the first person as unwilling witnesses and implicated subjects of the war. All three have been labeled by the Sens Interdits International Festival (Lyon, France) and are on international tour (2025-2027).

Elina Kulikova holds a Master’s degree in Theatre Directing (mise en scène) from La Manufacture — Haute école des arts de la scène (Lausanne, Switzerland). She completed a BA in Liberal Arts at Smolny College of Liberal Arts and Sciences (St. Petersburg, Russia) in partnership with Bard College (NY, USA) in 2019.

She is currently a fellow of the Georgetown University Fellowship for Global Performance and Politics (2024–2026) and artist in the residency à la Comédie de Gèneve (2026-2029).

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