Graduates Ecaterina Grigorieva and Gjorgji Despodov win STRP Young ACT Award

The STRP Young ACT Award offers emerging artists a platform to further develop, expand, and ultimately present their graduation projects as part of STRP’s 2026 exhibition Big Energy, Slow Futures. This year, three winners were selected by the jury consisting of STRP’s Artistic Director and the STRP Young Advisory Board. They receive a project budget, artistic and production guidance, and the chance for the selected artists to become part of a growing network of creatives and collectives.

Ecaterina Grigorieva (ArtScience, 2025), graduation work: 'The Sounds We Hear On Land'

‘The Sounds We Hear On Land’ came to life whilst Grigorieva was creating a new habit outdoors: going on daily swims in Scheveningen. What inspired her to create this work was the sound of the sea water unexpectedly leaving her ears once she got back home. To capture this comforting, playful experience, she created glass sculptures with seawater inside that, when moved, allow the user to orchestrate the sound of the vibration of water against the glass. Grigorieva then, as conductor, controls the mixer and creates a composition by enhancing the frequencies that emerge from participants’ play.

Through this work, Grigorieva explores energy as a shared ritual through attention and intuitive composition. The glass sculptures encourage slowing down and listening, creating the vision that energy does not have to embody speed or technology. Participants experience the beauty of subtraction, feeling how art can breathe and what can be created with its frequencies.

Gjorgji Despodov (Non Linear Narrative, 2025), graduation work: 'Doom Scroll Rehab: Cache Cleanse'

With ‘Cache Cleanse’, Despodov envisions a near-future where chronic overconsumption of digital content takes over the world. As society suffers from this condition called ‘Brain Rot’, the only way to treat it is to leave your phone and algorithmic dependencies at the door and enter the doom scroll rehab facility called ‘Cache Cleanse’. In this immersive experience, visitors can enter the Anti-Doomscrolling ASMR Ritual Circle, where they are provided with a guided ASMR therapy session whilst being encouraged to interact with tactile materials to counteract the effects of doomscrolling. All while being watched by the Goddess of Slime, Silitra, who - in this speculative future - is known to soothe brainrot with a single whisper.

Through his work, Despodov reflects on the mental and ecological exhaustion of accelerated digital media consumption. By creating this counter-ritual to attention extraction and algorithmic speed distraction, ‘Cache Cleanse’ operates as a ‘slow future’ prototype. It reimagines energy not as power or efficiency, but as presence and attentiveness, as a possible cure for the insatiable appetite of big energy. All to open the door to a speculative future in which collective well-being and digital culture can coexist in harmony.