Rotten Trees-
ICA Creatives Takeover

Rotten Trees - Costume for Performance at the Institute of Contemporary Arts London (ICA) Creatives takeover July 2026 -Latex, fabric, fringe

For Olia Poliakova  

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Event Website - https://ica.art/ica-creatives-takeover-2026 

 

The costume features a black mask that covers the face. From it, long strands extend—like roots or hair—spreading across the floor and merging with the soil around them. The mask removes individual identity from the body, instead representing collective experiences that extend far beyond the self. 

 

A translucent flesh-toned garment constructed from a patchwork of different textures and materials. Suggesting a nude body without revealing it, the costume exposes the vulnerability and malleability of the flesh, presenting the body as a vessel shaped by the experiences accumulated along our paths.

Rotten Trees is a performance by Olia Poliakova exploring migration through the body and space. Moving between memory and transformation, the work considers what happens when we enter an already existing structure and are expected to reshape ourselves within it. Through movement and the transformation of space, it questions what is lost, what remains, and how identity is continually renegotiated.