Marina Smorodinova was born in Vsevolozhsk (Всеволожск), Russia.

With degrees from the State University of Saint Petersburg (conflict management) and the École Supérieure d’Art de Lorraine in Metz, she is currently continuing her research at Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains in Tourcoing.

Social interactions in everyday life are the material of her artistic research. She is interested in people in simple situations, like the ones in the plays of Anton Chekhov. Devoid of any real plot, these scenes nevertheless have a strong narrative structure. It is this banality which means the flow of time – emptiness – can be made visible, and that one can get to the essence of what is shown by the image and sound. This plainness of the situation makes it possible to attain a balance between movement and immobility, between sound and silence, between pencil stroke and blank paper. Her work usually takes the form of films, drawings, installations or performances.