Nikita Kadan – Museum of Strength
Residence Sorry No Rooms Available
November 3 – 21, 2022,
Double room, Hotel Intourist-Zakarpattia

Pressure
Cruelty
Resilient Balance
Reliance
Spacer
Strength

The axe and the sickle were found at Svyniachka.

We are all given to each other as objects. This seems like what Graham Harman meant.

The state of freedom means atomization, dispersal of our community, the “we” that is ours. The state of war condenses “we”, bringing it closer to homogeneity. “We” are brought together by an attribute because of which we are exterminated. And this attribute becomes the basis for our counteraction. Resistance is subjective. It is carried out on behalf of someone or something (a collective identity, a chosen or agreed upon). Strength is objective. It is built by bones, trees, concrete structures, routine habits, social relations that are not fixed by formal contracts, soil, air. In times of war, bodies, intonations, habits, and ways of thinking change. There is a possibility that bones and organs could become mixed with glass and concrete in seconds. The rapidly changing situation creates new and new traps for conformist solutions. Thought resets its relationship with the idea of the future. The body experiences continuous infusions of adrenaline.

Dignity can also be found in an indoor Atlas. Support the walls, hold the ceiling. Being in a state of resilient strength can look like inviolability. The main thing is not to overuse the phrase “cultural front” and to remember where the actual frontline is.

A museum is about “making war history” in real time. A possibility of a museum that preserves peripheral narratives. Peripheral lives. At the same time, a museum is a court.

I remembered that German person who called in the first week after the 24th, hinting at “the red lines” and advising to switch to guerilla fighting as soon as possible in order not to take weapons from the USA. Well, to hell with him.

Matter thinks in strength.

Project and text: Nikita Kadan
Production sculptures by Eduard Mahdynets
Translation into English by Svitlana Libet

Documentation of the opening of the exhibition, photo credit Mykhailo Melnychenko

Documentation of the exhibition, photos credit Petro Ryaska

Nikita Kadan’s residency and exhibition was made possible thanks to the support of:
The beaux-arts Academy in Paris
Emergency Support Initiative