PRESENTATION: Zhanna Gladko-Parallel Dimensions
Zhanna Gladko is a representative of young generation of Belarusian artists. In her works, she seeks to construct ambivalent images, rethinking and deconstructing extensive concepts, such as the system of art and society, religion and culture, history and memory, gender policy, the analysis of the role of contemporary museums and the subject of identity crisis.
By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Zhanna Gladko Archive
Zhanna Gladko deliberately and simultaneously highlights and actualises these societal issues by exploring them through her private experiences and by photography, installations, text, video, painting and other visual techniques. At the heart of Zhanna Gladko’s work “Parallel Dimension” are two antagonistic Belarusian flags. The official flag of the Belarusian government is red-green and the white-red-white flag, banned since 2020. It’s the opposition flag, with which the Belarusian people go out to peaceful protests. Since 2020 any use of protest flag symbols can be subject to fines or penalties of imprisonment and detention. The exact dates and times of the official approval of both flags in different years are known (1918 / 1995). The artist took a symbolic image of a sky map at the time of the flags approval. Using a light beam, the graphic image on the glass blends into a complex unified shadow creating a general field. The artist is interested in the themes of illusory reality, layering of different segments of history, non-linearity of temporal space. It’s when one reality and history coming into conflict and dialogue with another is distorted and layered. And it becomes a shadow zone. In the video projection, the artist walks along a forest road, gradually moving farther and farther into the forest. But the observer camera does not let the figure out of its field of view, bringing the receding figure closer each time. The camera doesn’t let it out keeping it under observation, in focus until the figure is completely blurred and turns into a digital pixel. Zhanna Gladko made her “Return of Lilith” video during a residency at the Nida Art Colony (Vilnius Academy of Arts, Lithuania). Overcoming her long-standing bathophobia (fear of depths), on the day of the winter solstice the artist engaged in something akin to a ritual of reconnecting with the element of water by diving into the cold Baltic Sea. In astronomical terms, Lilith is a fictitious point of the Moon’s maximum distance from the Earth on its orbit. The “Return of Lilith” is more than an individual gesture of the manifestation of femininity within strictly hierarchical structures and concealed powers of the shadowed side of human personality – it is also a confirmation of the mechanism of eternal recurrence of human existence, manifested in the cyclicity of life processes of individuals (humans). A series of charts on transparent panels depict coded birth dates of the artist’s deceased female and male relatives, aligned with their individual life paths and correlation to the stellar sky. During the Belarus protests of 2020, the artist collected dust from the glass on the balcony of her flat on Partizanski Avenue in Minsk, the place where columns of police trucks and armoured vehicles used by the authorities to repress peaceful marches streaming into the city centre down the road every Sunday. The performance “Vicious Circle” is based on the installation “Destroyed Piano”, created by the artist in 2015. The work is part of the larger cycle “Inciting Force”. Zhanna Gladko constructs a space that refers to the idea of a sacral zone, a place that can be attractive at certain times and whose magnetism is difficult to overcome. It is an image of a homeland, a comfort zone, a community, a magical circle in mystical practices*. Something that is a protection from external forces, but at some point turns into an insurmountable wall or cage, limiting the freedom of personal expression. A trap, from which you can hardly get out if you don’t acquire and manifest your right to autonomy and independence.
* The image of a circle, a ring, refers to a sacred space that was used in magic practices. Such a circle was drawn with charcoal or chalk, thus protecting yourself from the outside. Later on, brass wire was used to make the circle. The most powerful action was considered to be when people stood in a circle, holding hands, creating a circle that united people into one community, a force.
Photo: Zhanna Gladko, Vicious Circle, 2021, Installation with piano bass strings, video projections; 400 x 400 cm, © Zhanna Gladko, Courtesy the artist
Info: KUNSTHALL 3,14, Vaagsallmennigen 12, Bergen, Norway, Duration: 19/11/2022-29/1/2023, Days & Hours: Tue-Wed & Fri-Sun 12:00-17:00 & Thu 12:00-20:00, www.kunsthall314.art/
