The exhibition “The Soil under My Nails Reminds Me of Dried Blood”, brings together many stories and testimonies. The Secondary Archive project, featuring the artists represented in the exhibition, started out as an attempt to capture the direct speech of women artists while their role in the artistic environment is still fragile. When men start wars, women's voices can become quieter. Northern Cultural Capital, a non-governmental organization, has collected testimonies of women who survived the Chernihiv Oblast’s occupation.
The work by Olha Kuzyura whose family also comes from the Chernihiv region was created in a dialogue with these stories. Kinder Album presented a series of works inspired by obituaries and stories of memory from the liberated Kharkiv Oblast collected by the Memorial project. In her work, Daria Molokoiedova engages with the image of her own childhood home, which remains inaccessible in the frontline city of Kramatorsk. Marharyta Polovinko, a volunteer paramedic, paints landscapes with her own blood: sometimes abstract, sometimes you can recognise the scenery of her native Kryvyi Rih. They are echoed by Dasha Chechushkova’s Black Sea panorama, which the artist captured after the Russians blew up the Kakhovka Dam. Finally, this dialogue extends beyond the current war in Ukraine. Anna Zvyagintseva refers to the advice she heard as a child to always have sweets with her.
Organiser: Artsvit Gallery, Dnipro
Partner: The Naked Room, Kyiv
Curated by: Alya Segal
Participants: Kinder Album, Anna Zvyagintseva, Olha Kuzyura, Daria Molokoiedova, Marharyta Polovinko, Dasha Chechushkova
WHEN: 5 June, at 19:00
WHERE: The Naked Room gallery, Kyiv, Reitarska Street, 21.
FREE ENTRANCE
This exhibition is supported by the Partnership for a Resilient Ukraine, funded by the governments of Canada, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, and United States of America.
The Partnership Fund for a Resilient Ukraine (PFRU) is a multi-donor programme funded by Canada, Estonia, Finland, Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland, the United Kingdom, and the United States, which unites the Government of Ukraine with its closest international government partners to deliver projects in primarily liberated and frontline communities that strengthen Ukraine's resilience against Russia's war of aggression. PFRU aims to strengthen the Ukrainian government’s capacity and resilience to deliver essential support to local communities in collaboration with civil society, media, and the private sector.
