Kadyrova lives and works in Kyiv. She has remained in Ukraine from the beginning of the full-scale Russian invasion, claiming that “she would not be able to address the war in her artistic activity without being there”.
Entitled “Avulsion”, the exhibition features Kadyrova’s sculptures, drawings, videos, films, photographs and embroidery, all focusing on the ongoing war, the daily life of Ukrainian people, as well as efforts to preserve the nation’s cultural heritage.
Talking to the media, exhibition curator Monika Szewczyk explained that the term ‘avulsion’, commonly associated with medicine, “can metaphorically describe severing oneself from an environment, culture, or identity by rejecting traditions and social norms, or the abrupt breaking of social ties in the wake of a crisis.”
The exhibits include Kadyrova’s 2024 documentary film entitled IDP (Internally displaced persons), which tells the story of the evacuation of the artist’s Origami sculpture, created in 2019 in the Jubilee Park in Pokrovsk, Donetsk region. On August 30, 2024, amidst the ongoing war, it was dismantled and relocated from the city, during the forced evacuation of the local population. According to Szewczyk, the film “is not just a story about a sculpture - it is a story of loss, displacement, and the effort to preserve cultural heritage in times of war".
Born in 1981 in Brovary, Ukraine, Kadyrova graduated from the sculpture department of the Taras Shevchenko State School of the Arts in Kyiv. Her works have been shown at such prestigious venues as the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. She has exhibited twice in the Ukrainian pavilion at the Venice Biennale and is to represent her country again at next year’s event in Venice.
The Arsenal Gallery exhibition runs until February 15.
(mk/mm)