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The 58th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia was an opportunity for Zhanna Kadyrova to exhibit two works, “Market” 2017 – 2019 and “Second Hand” 2014 – 2019, both of which were in progress for a number of years, taking on different forms and manifestations according to where and how they were exhibited. At the Biennale, Kadyrova considered the Venetian environment in her approach to producing these works. Working in a studio in the Arsenale, for “Second Hand” Kadyrova connected with the city through the materials she managed to procure, ceramic tiles from the Hotel all’Angelo in Venice. 


The relationship between architecture and mosaic has been a preoccupation of the artist throughout her career; the artist’s home country, Ukraine, has an extensive history of producing ceramic tiles. The artist started “Second Hand” shortly before Ukraine began its decommunization in April of 2015. For some iterations of this project before the 2019 Venice Biennale, Kadyrova used tiles from Soviet-era non-operational industrial buildings, adding another meaning to the title which not only refers to the sartorial form that Kadyrova manipulates these tiles into, but also the reused nature of the material, giving new structure, form and therefore meaning to them that are reminiscent of a prolific and effecting historic period. 



For the 2019 Venice Biennale, the ceramic and cement clothes and linens of "Second Hand" were partly hung outside the Central Pavilion, an idea that came to the artist, her team and the Galleria Continua team after noticing the habit adopted by many Venetians of hanging laundry out the window; this is an action that is mainly banned in the historic centres of many Italian cities yet in Venice it still prevails. 


For centuries, varnish on ceramic tiles was used in Orthodox churches as a medium for divine spaces and Christian saints. In the Venetian context, we could even dare to think about the Italo-Byzantine style of St Mark’s Basilica in the centre of the city and therefore associate the coloured varnish with exclusivity and riches. On the other hand, the cement is indicative of the introduction of the material in the late 1950s to Soviet nations where it was used to cover official buildings that housed the work of, amongst other professions, scientists and factory workers. The materials are representative of the contrast to be found between the fragility of the buildings they were once set upon and the durable nature of the tiles that suggest decadency and decoration; in this instance at the Hotel all’Angelo, a hotel which in the 70s and 80s was known to host many artists, some participating in the Venice Biennale. 


In occasion of the 58th Venice Biennale, Zhanna Kadyrova was included in the catalogue La Biennale di Venezia. 58ª Esposizione internazionale d'arte. May you live in interesting times edited by La Biennale di Venezia 2019. Other publications include; Zhanna Kadyrova 2013, with the support of Smirnov & Sorokin Foundation, published by Maier and Animalier 2019 published by Gli Ori. 



Lorenzo Fiaschi, co-founder of Galleria Continua, talks about working with Zhanna Kadyrova and her project at the 58th Venice Biennale.