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Kuznetsova Polina
In collaboration with Andrii Skrypka.
The action is dedicated to the victims of the terrorist attack on the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Station on June 6, 2023. The number of casualties and the extent of the destruction remain uncalculated, as most of the flooded territory is still under occupation.
Video documentation of the performance was created in July 2023. The artist spent 85 minutes in river water, periodically holding her breath to understand what it feels like to be in water for a long time, what it’s like to be in a flood zone.
The video, like the performance itself, lasts 85 minutes without editing.
An aquarium or simply a glass vessel resembles a container for anatomical specimens. Similarly, Ukraine now feels like a vast experiment, watched through a metaphorical transparent wall by the entire world: how will we cope, are we heroic enough, smart enough, is there corruption, what new ways of overcoming invasion will our military invent? This glass wall also represents the endless screens of gadgets.
Like all Ukrainians, I live in circumstances where I constantly encounter information and events that are impossible to process, accept, or comprehend. Not everyone has taken up arms, and not everyone has the opportunity to directly express their anger or revenge. It’s frustrating.
We are all enduring irreversible losses here — our friends and people around us die daily: the elderly, the young, the children. Animals die, cities and lands we loved are destroyed, entire ecosystems perish. We lose homes, our usual way of life, our loved ones scattered around the world. This is the daily reality of every Ukrainian, which is not commonly spoken of. Therefore, many choose to hide their feelings or to hide from their feelings entirely.
You get used to enduring inconveniences: sitting in bomb shelters as long as necessary, sitting on the floor in evacuation trains for a whole day, living without electricity, living in unfamiliar cities where you know nothing. So spending 85 minutes in this cold water wasn’t something extraordinary for me. I just endured it a little.
A confined space — it’s about confined emotions.
Polina Kuznetsova was born in 1985 in Kharkiv.
She graduated from the Kharkiv Academy of Design and Arts, specializing in “Easel Painting.” She has been actively working in the art field since 2008.
The author considers herself part of the “new sincerity” movement and feels influenced by “magical realism.” Since 2018, she has been actively exhibiting, creating authorial projects. Although Polina’s work is a subjective reflection, she does not shy away from socially significant themes.
“I believe that the role of an artist is to be something like a membrane that responds both to events in the external world and to internal events, then transforms all of this into images and symbols.”
EXHIBITIONS
2024 – Group exhibition, participant and curator of Volta New York, Ukrainian Pavilion
2024 – Group exhibition, participant and curator of “Merging with the Garden,” New York, Mriya Gallery
2024 – Group exhibition “War: Reverse Perspective,” War Museum, Kyiv.
2024 – Group exhibition “Art is the Highest Form of Hope,” St. Sophia Cathedral, Khlebnia, organized by Triptych Art Gallery, Kyiv.
2024 – Group exhibition, “Time Capsule – A Golden Record,” Rukh Art Hub, New York, USA
2024 – Group exhibition, “SHERO,” Rukh Art Hub, New York, USA
2023 – Solo exhibition “Terrible Fairy Tale,” Triptych Art Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2023 – Affordable Art Fair, Lysenko Gallery, Stockholm, Sweden
2023 – Group exhibition, “Diamond Jam,” The 1st Ukrainian Gallery US, SOHO, New York, USA
2023 – Group exhibition, “Ukrainian Art Collection,” Buckhead Art & Company, Atlanta, Georgia, USA
2023 – First Ukrainian Art Auction in London, Cromwell Place, London, England
2023 – Group exhibition “Muses Do Not Remain Silent,” Ukrainian House, Copenhagen, Denmark
2023 – Group exhibition “Hardened. Ukrainian Phenomenon,” Europa-Center, Berlin, Germany
2023 – Group exhibition, “Sonya Gallery Project,” Sonya Gallery, Los Angeles, USA
2023 – Group exhibition “Path of Resistance,” Helms Design Center, Los Angeles, USA
2022 – Solo exhibition “Times,” National Kyiv Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2022 – Group exhibition “Sonya Gallery Project,” Sonya Gallery, New York, USA
2022 – Group exhibition “Reconciliation with the Living,” UNESCO Headquarters, Paris, France
2022 – Group exhibition “And Rise Up,” dedicated to the 300th anniversary of Hryhorii Skovoroda, Lavra Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2022 – Solo exhibition “Times,” Truus Gallery, Tallinn, Estonia
2022 – Solo exhibition “Times,” Boo’s Closet Gallery, London, England
2022 – Group exhibition “Art of Ukraine,” Four Seasons Hotel Denver, USA
2022 – Solo exhibition “Times,” Center for Contemporary Art, Ivano-Frankivsk, Ukraine
2022 – Group exhibition “Muses Do Not Remain Silent,” Lviv, Ukraine
2021 – Solo exhibition “Dreams,” Promodohub, Kharkiv, Ukraine
2020 – Group exhibition “Global a**m,” Gdańsk, Poland
2020 – Solo exhibition “Parallel World,” Center for Contemporary Art “Vynograd,” Kharkiv, Ukraine
2020 – Group exhibition “Territory of Glory,” “Heritage,” Ukraine
2019 – Solo exhibition “Road,” Odesa Art Museum, Odesa, Ukraine
2018 – Solo exhibition “Trajectories,” Art Arsenal, Kyiv, Ukraine
2018 – Group exhibition “Creative Space,” Triptych Art Gallery, Kyiv, Ukraine
2018 – Group exhibition “Heart of the City,” Uzhhorod, Ukraine