zhanna kadyrova repurposes ceramic tiles into garments in second hand project

since 2014, ukrainian artist zhanna kadyrova has been exploring the relationship between architecture and mosaic. carried out in different places and dubbed second hand, the project responds to the architectural and social memory of particular communities. presented by galleria continua at the venice art biennale 2019, this latest installment repurposes ceramic tiles from a hotel in venice to construct items of clothing and bedding, some of which hang from clotheslines suspended outside the back of the central pavilion and are visible through the windows.

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ukraine, zhanna kadyrova’s home country, has a long history of ceramic tile production, and in previous iterations she has used tiles from defunct soviet-era industrial buildings, memorializing these structures in sculptures reminiscent of 1960s and 1970s-style soviet fashion. kadyrova began this project shortly before ukraine introduced decommunization, a process intended to erase all trace of the country’s soviet past.

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due to their material — smalt, mosaic panels or ceramic tiles feature a strong physical resistance to the effects of time, being more durable than the architecture they are set upon. ‘smalt was famously used for mosaics in the byzantine basilicas and later in orthodox churches as the chief medium for divine spaces and christian saints,’ comments the curator elena sorokina for the exhibition in zahorian & van espen gallery in prague. ‘in the late 1950s it was introduced to the soviet territories and destined to cover grey concrete facades with images of workers, scientists, athletes, cosmonauts, industrialisation or the discovery of atomic energy. kadyrova’s projects explore this paradoxical encounter between concrete, the foundational stone of modernity – cheap, addictive and polluting – and its “other” smalt – exclusive, secret, expensive, and indestructible.’

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the second hand project began in sao paulo in 2014 when zhanna kadyrova found tiles in second hand shops, produced approximately in the 70s of the last century. a year later, she did it in her home country, where she used old tiles found in the lining of the darnitski silk factory premises or stored on its territory. the project continued in chernobyl in 2017, where she made a dress for a mannequin from the ceramic tiles that decorated a bus station. before venice, the artist went to the kiev film copy factory and repurposed the tiles.

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