Maria Kulikovska

Let’s start with the kind of description you’d expect: Maria Kulikovska is an internationally acclaimed multimedia artist, political performer, architect and lecturer. Or perhaps with the following: Maria Kulikovska is always herself. Through her art, she reveals her deepest feelings about the most human and the most inhuman things. She is independent because she faces the truth, shame and her issues. In doing so, she challenges us, using all means at her disposal to make it clear that art is political.

Let’s hand the first question and answer over to her: “WHAT is a CONFLICT? The question mark is not there without a reason. Is a conflict really just an open-ended war? There is no war in the European Union, but is there really only one conflict there? There are so many people on this planet and most of us are unhappy because we are all caught up in our own desires to such an extent that we’re oblivious to the needs of others. And even the people in the developed, wealthier countries who are happier condone ignorance of the suffering of those beyond their borders. I myself have more questions than answers,” says Maria Kulikovska. It’s such an honest comment, it’s unsettling. It’s both honest and necessary.

“I’ve often wondered what art would look like if everything was just fine, if dictatorship or war didn’t exist, if all people were totally equal, if they loved and accepted each other and did their utmost so that things weren’t just fine for themselves but for others too. Then there would probably no longer be pure, honest art but only beautiful design and architecture. But right now, I find myself wanting to do more and more architecture. I feel like creating something incredibly beautiful and useful. Built with love on the ruins and destruction left behind in Ukraine by Russia’s war of aggression. It should be for all those who, despite all the horror and sadism inflicted by the Russians, are defending their freedom, their future and their lives. Perhaps I too have had to go through all these horrors since the start of the occupation and the war in Ukraine in order to rebel and to cry out using my whole body, expressing everything that has accumulated. Through my art, I can point to what awaits us. I needed to use my art to talk about my traumas and premonitions so that people would wake up faster and ward the devil off in time, so that they don’t have to suffer as I did back then. But I can see that so far it hasn’t worked very well. All the experiences I’ve had through my art and my struggles give me a deeper understanding of how I can go on living, even how I can create something useful,” says Maria.

And aren’t you also handing on to others your relentlessness, your story, your questions, your doubts, your observations so that we can understand?

“I am as personal as I can be in my statements and artistic work. I paint in watercolours over my own documents, so I can’t conceal anything from the viewer. Art is my way of communicating with the world. In real life I’m an introverted, very family-oriented person who’d like to spend all their time with their family and the process of making art. I don’t have enough words to express my feelings and thoughts. It’s easier for me to do it with paint on thin paper, to construct a performance in public or to cast a sculptural figure using metaphorical materials. It’s always up to others to decide whether they accept my feelings and whether, by looking at the images I have made for them, they are willing to accept them. I don’t know if we need first some kind of magic pill in order to hear, respect and love each other, but what’s happening in this world now is a kind of horror….” And here Maria stops for a moment. “I don’t feel as wounded now as I used to. All the fears that I’ve dealt with in my work so far have come true. I feel like a witch whose premonitions foresaw scarred bodies and souls. I’m tired and burnt out. In my work, I only create and speak about what I’ve experienced because I don’t think I have the right to do anything else.” Isn’t this kind of awareness also applicable to how we should be reporting on current events, so that people stop forgetting to pay attention so quickly?

“When Crimea was annexed and taken by Russia without a fight, no support came from the Western democracies. Where was the vigilance there? Ordinary people were abandoned. They had nothing but pitchforks, pickaxes or shovels to defend themselves. There was no army. How could these people have resisted the Russian tanks and soldiers who, disregarding international law and even the Budapest Memorandum, simply entered their country cynically and proclaimed themselves their rulers? And everyone just watched.”

“I was one of the first to apply for refugee status because of this occupation and was assigned number 254. The truth is that I didn’t escape Crimea. I just didn’t go back after Russia arrived. My performance entitled 254, which took place in St Petersburg in 2014, was a personal protest, a cry for help, a weapon and my duel with the monster that is Russia. At that time, I exposed all the people who wanted our death and our suffering. I just walked silently into the middle of the lion’s den, perhaps even to my death. The full extent of pain and anger I felt physically crushed me every day. I couldn’t go on living like this.” After these words, I held my breath and her words pierced my skin. Is there a dream you would hope one day to come true?

“I want to design and literally build my own house just the way I want it for me and my family. And I dream of finally opening the doors of our non-binary art space Garage33, a gallery and warehouse space in Kyiv. With my daughter and her father, my husband, I want to walk along the shores of Kerch Strait, then visit the municipal gallery where we put on a wonderful international exhibition. And then people, neighbours and friends from all over the world will come to this exhibition to experience this moment with us and to see Crimea rebuilt, unoccupied and free.”

As featured in SLEEK 76 FREEDOM. Available in print and digital here.