Maria Kulikovska
“My subject is the ‘Body’, its beauty, fragility, transformation and decay. The materials I use are no longer lasting than the flesh making the human body. Like a soap bubble gliding in the wind, in an instant, no longer there, ‘Homo Bula’. If not remembered—forgotten."
Born in 1988 in Kerch, Crimea (Ukraine), Maria Kulikovska graduated in 2013 with a master’s degree in architecture from the National Academy of Fine Arts and Architecture in Kiev. Some of her recent solo projects and performances have been hosted by, among others, the Cidade da Cultura in Santiago de Compostela (2018), the Ludwig Museum- Museum of Contemporary Art in Budapest (2018) and the Ermilov Centre in Kharkiv (2018), Maria was invited to the 2-month residence of the Liverpool Biennale (September-October 2017); also invited by the Munich Ministry of Culture (October-November 2018). She has been awarded numerous prizes and scholarships.
The nucleus of Maria Kulikovska’s work is her own body, its perpetuation, its transformation and its decay. Throughout her oeuvre, the idea of her body is transformed into architectural structures made from natural materials, such as salt, milk or sugar, in order to deal with ideas of production, construction and de-construction. She works in various media, including sculptural objects, performances, actions, happenings and video. The founder of an organisation—Body and Borders— to support and promote women artists, Maria Kulikovska lives and works in Sweden.
epoxy resin, 210 x 55 x 40 cm
The central element of Kulikovska’s work is her own body, the idea and reality of which she portrays in a variety of architectural structures, working in natural media (salt, milk and sugar, alone and in combination). Her compositions reflect on the concepts of production, construction and deconstruction and their current expression, but also draws the attention of viewers to issues related to the situation of women in society and to violence against women. The pieces of her Carpe Diem series build upon the tension between joie de vivre and impermanence, drawing from the tradition of vanitas still lives. The series was originally made of soap, which she replaced with epoxy resin.