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REFUGEES 2023

Operating on an equally collective level, Kadyrova’s Refugees engages with and addresses a wider Ukrainian community. Unlike her earlier works, Refugees incorporates living witnesses. In this project, Kadyrova rescued plants from destroyed public infrastructure across Ukraine, including libraries, hospitals, and schools. These plants, conceptualized as “refugees,” are literally uprooted from disaster zones to seek shelter abroad. Traveling with the artist from country to country, the plants undergo a process of healing while testifying to their own survival. There are many who are lost and more who we are losing every day.

This work serves as a poignant metaphor for displacement and endurance.The project expanded into a series of lightboxes, ranging in scale from small to monumental, featuring photographs that Kadyrova took while rescuing the plants.By presenting these images in lightboxes, she consciously positions her practice within the Western art-historical continuum, referencing both the tradition of still-life painting and contemporary photographic techniques.This dual gesture underscores the interplay between established art-historical narratives and the urgent realities of conflict.

Hanover Kunstverein, Hanover, Germany

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