Zhanna Kadyrova

Zhanna Kadyrova: revealing the visual systems that influence society

Zhanna Kadyrova was born in 1981 in Brovary, then in the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. Her adolescence took place during the turning point between the fall of the Soviet Union and recovery of Ukrainian independence.Artistically active during the Ukraine’s “Orange” revolution as well as the globally famous Maidan protests of 2013, Kadyrova's art is therefore considerable in these aforementioned contexts. It has a collective outlook and considers its social and political implications deeply. In 2004 she co-founded the group “Revolutionary Experimental Space” (R.E.P.), whose goal was to encourage a reconsideration of public space and the development of a critical consciousness towards it, through installations and actions linked to the socio-economic history of Ukraine.
Her practice associates with history, communist propaganda materials, post-communist modernity, the idea of community, the concept of public space both in relationship to the private individual and the collective, and the relationship between the artwork and the viewer in a tendentially urban, collective dimension in terms of processes or location.
The materials she uses, like concrete, brick and tiles, tend to be far from traditional and are associated with construction and architectonical industries. Her works, rather than just presenting the viewer with images or representations of elements of civilisation, actively critique and bring to light the visual systems that are employed to impart messages on and influence society.