Illya Szilak

Writer, artist, director and creative producer for interactive and transmedia stories. Her collaborative artistic practice explores mortality, liveness, identity and belief in a media inundated and increasingly virtual world. In addition to creating stories in new media, she practices medicine part-time at Rikers Island Correctional Facility in NYC. Her longtime creative partner is Cyril Tsiboiulski. Together they create multimedia, cross-disciplinary projects that have included writing, dance, photography, live performance, film, physical and virtual installation, and textiles. Among their works are: Reconstructing Mayakovsky and Queerskins, a novel (2013), VR experience Queerskins (2018); In My Own Skin, a virtual exhibition of photography in VRChat (2021). They have received grants from The Jerome Foundation, The Sundance Institute/Arcus Foundation and The Tribeca Film Institute /MacArthur Foundation and The Peter S. Reed Foundation.