Julya Rabinowich
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Julya Rabinowich (Russian: Юля Борисовна Рабинович; born 1970 in Leningrad, (now Saint Petersburg, Russia) is an Austrian author, playwright, painter and translator. In 1977 her family emigrated to Vienna, a move in which she describes herself as having been “uprooted and re-potted.”[1]
Rabinowich is the daughter of artist and designer Boris Rabinowich (1938–1988)[2] and artist Nina Werzhbinskaja-Rabinowich who, with their family, emigrated from the Soviet Union to Vienna in December 1977.[3] Rabinowich has a daughter, born in 1995.[4]
From 1993–1996, Rabinowich studied at the University of Vienna to become a translator, following which she took additional courses in psychotherapy.[5] Accepted at the University of Applied Arts Vienna in 1998, Rabinowich continued her studies with a focus on Fine Arts (painting) and philosophy, receiving her diploma in 2006.[5]
Since 2006, Rabinowich has worked as an interpreter for refugees at the Integrationshaus Wien and the Diakonie Flüchtlingsdienst.[6] Both centres are engaged in welcoming, aiding and integrating asylum seekers, refugees and migrants to Austria.
Rabinowich is a regular columnist for Der Standard, contributing weekly columns under the title “Geschüttelt, nicht Gerührt” (Shaken, not Stirred) since March 2012, wherein she addresses current issues.[5]
While Rabinowich thinks that art can but need not be political, much of her own work is written in response to the politics around asylum and the European refugee experience.[7] Despite her frequent use of these themes, she rails against having her literary works categorized as “migration literature,” finding the term derogatory and “downright racist.”[8]
In describing her relationship between her work as an artist and as an author, Rabinowich says, “I am a very visual person. I write what I see. I used to write with colours, now with words.”[9]
In 2013, Rabinowich moderated an art installation at the Jewish Museum Vienna showcasing the works of her father, Boris Rabinowich.[10] Rabinowich lives and works an author, dramatist and painter in Vienna.[1]
