Zhanna Kadyrova: Daily Bread. A First Retrospective

Kunstverein Hannover’s solo presentation of Kadyrova’s practice spans two decades of her work, with a special focus on artistic production in the war phases of 2014 and 2022 until today.

Kadyrova, who has been working locally and internationally for twenty years, understands artistic work as an activity rooted in resilience. Confronted with the omnipresence of war in her home country, the artist finds a practice of resistance through structure and routine—art making as daily bread.

The presentation aims to show what new kinds of artistic production the dramatically changed situation calls for, and how radically new types of creative output can contextualize a situation in which art becomes a key means of resistance. The February 2022 invasion of Ukraine by Russian troops likewise opened a new artistic chapter for the artist, who has more recently explored issues of national identity, the Soviet past, and the physical ground, in addition to processing the vehemence and brutality of war—all in the form of significant artworks that become even more meaningful in hindsight.