Zhanna Kadyrova: Out of Home

For one month, from September 8 to October 8, the Munich Documentation Center will show an installation of recent works by the artist Zhanna Kadyrova. She created the works as a direct reaction to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They are an expression of civil resistance and the fierce resilience of an artist in the face of military force. The work Refugees (2023) will form the centerpiece of the exhibition. In her quiet, haunting images, Kadyrova documents the interiors of public institutions, including a library and a school laid to waste by Russian missiles. These are spaces devoid of people, where their former use can just barely be discerned from the destroyed inventory. Between fragments of furniture, torn curtains, and soot-covered rubble, the only sign of former life in these spaces is the potted plants. The artist rescued these damaged organisms, providing them with a temporary home in the exhibition space in conjunction with the photographs. As mute survivors they testify to the war crimes perpetrated against the Ukrainian civilian population since February 2022.  

Zhanna Kadyrova (born 1981 in Brovary, Ukraine) often works with found materials such as building rubble from the Soviet era or river stones from Transcarpathia where she sheltered from the fighting around Kyiv for a time. She has worked some of these found objects, elaborately composing them into symbolically charged, highly aesthetic objects and installations. The resulting works of art are full of ideological, historical, and political references. They are open to manifold interpretations and yet their artistic vocabulary is always clear and easy to comprehend. Kadyrova often works with other artists and activists. She uses the proceeds from her projects Palianytsia (2022) and Russian Rocket (2022) to support Ukrainian initiatives and to help people defend themselves against Russian attacks.

The exhibition Zhanna Kadyrova. Out of Home is part of VARIOUS OTHERS and the Munich Flower Power Festival 2023.