Kovach Olena

Portrait on the background of the Black Sea, in its absence
Portrait on the background of the Black Sea, in its absence Series of photographic performances, 15 photos, digital printing, lightboxes, photo wallpapers, 2020
About the artwork

When absent native southern (Crimean) coast felt especially acute, the artist was looking for it in the north the Baltic horizon, where this photographic performance took place. The horizon looked the same, but could not replace the native landscape in its place was a hole. Olena Kovach invited participants of her action to take turns to cut themselves from a roll of black cloth their own piece of “Black Sea”, at the back of which they were photographed.

Then she offered them, in addition to a portrait with a conditional “Black Sea”, to get their own hole in it their silhouette carved out of cloth, to feel his absence of the Black Sea coast. Cutting out the silhouette of the person portrayed, the artist talked to the participants, asking what they have to do with losses and how they overcome them. At the end of the action, the  closing remnants of the holes “Black Sea” were to be thrown away , the participants stopped the artist with a call not to throw out in any case pieces, because the action is not over ahead of stitching holes…

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Kovach Olena
Date of birth: 1982
Place of residence: Lutsk

Education:

She graduated from the Kyiv Institute of Decorative Arts and Design. Boychuk, studied photography at the Institute of Film and Television (KNUKiM, Kyiv).

Art practice:

The artist works mainly with long-term projects, combining different media. Experiments with combining photographic material with other visual languages; in particular, in recent projects he explores the interdisciplinary possibilities of photography at the intersection with theater, performance. Works with topics related to historical memory (collective and individual), the processes of forgetting, traumatic experiences and the principles of identity formation.

Group exhibitions:

Participated in festivals Gogol Fest, Vizii (Kyiv), OdesaPhotodays (Odessa, Kyiv), Krakers (Krakow), Do trzech razy sztuka (Poland, Hel peninsula), photo book festivals with a pilot edition of the photo book “Wild Field”. Scholar of the program of the Ministry of Culture of Poland Gaude Polonia in 2020. Lives and works in Lviv and Krakow.

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Artworks Kovach Olena