Zhanna Kadyrova: Unexpected

On 24 February 2022, the world changed for all Ukrainians. War ravages the land, Ukrainians have become refugees in their own country, many have left for abroad. Unexpectedly, Zhanna Kadyrova’s reality also changed. She became a refugee, and making art as before made little sense. Confronted with a sense of uselessness, finding refuge in Berezovo, a small village in the Carpathian Mountains, she looks for answers. How can she be an artist when her country is being brutally invaded? What is her role? How can she help? For Kadyrova, the only possible way forward is to speak about life, culture and war in Ukraine today.

Throughout this exhibition, Kadyrova empowers objects and materials to tell the story of Ukraine’s fight for freedom from Russia. They become the voice of so many Ukrainians who remain voiceless in this violent war. The exhibition starts with a horizon of Shots (2022–2023), a set of tiles fractured by the impact of a gunshot, paired with Harmless War (2023), a series of white-painted geometrical forms made from metal sheets that have been pierced by shrapnel during the full-scale invasion in Ukraine. The exhibition also takes us through the deeply personal journey of Kadyrova since 2014 till today. As a symbolic closing of the exhibition, Refugees (2023) depicts images of plants surviving the occupation alongside living plants that have travelled together with Kadyrova from Ukraine to Germany and now to Prague, remaining safe and well cared for, and finding temporary shelter in the Galerie Rudolfinum.