PALIANYTSIA 2022
PALIANYTSIA 2022
APPLE
Perm, Russia 2010
The history of the Russian city Perm, where Kadyrova was invited to make a public sculpture, is literally incorporated into the essence of Apple, a large object (with a 3-meter diameter) that stands in front of the Gorky Perm Oblast Library. The main part of the sculpture is made of fragments of brick walls from old, partially ruined Perm buildings, one of which (a 120-year-old building) was dismantled right before the artist’s eyes. This rusty-brown “inside” – the history of the city embodied in old brick – is covered with glossy green tile, a symbol of the shiny-glamorous and often overly superficial transformation of urban space.
As the apple-city is bitten away chaotically, piece by piece, by numerous investors, developers and other heedless businessmen, its historical layer, eaten away by time, and its ruins emerge. Contemporary reconstructions of urban space that do not take the history of the place into account, despite their objective of improvement, are perceived as crude bites into the body of the city, which is losing its integrity.
The Perm Apple has a sculpture-predecessor – a relatively small apple core that is part of the series Trash Monuments. Kadyrova first began to associate
historical architectural objects with gnawed and discarded fruits as an artist-in-residence on the territory of the former Sosnovskyi sugar refinery in Sharhorod, Vinnytsia oblast. A piece of apple made of fragments of centuries-old brick factory walls became a reflection on the history of that enterprise, which operated successfully from the end of the 19th century until the 1990s.
After the economic crisis following perestroika, when the refinery significantly cut back its production capacity, it was sold to private entrepreneurs in hopes that production would be reinstated. In spite of their contractual obligations, the new owners removed and disposed of all the metal, down to the load-bearing structures, barbarically destroying the entire architectural and industrial heritage of the place. Following a cultural conversion the former Sosnovskyi sugar refinery, no longer suitable for reinstatement as an industrial object, has turned into a successful artistic initiative for reflection on historical and cultural processes related to post-Soviet territories.
In this way Kadyrova metaphorically resurrects abandoned architectural heritage and prompts viewers to discuss civic responsibility for the place where one lives.
APPLE 2010 Concrete, cement, brick wall fragments, porcelain tile 300 × 300 × 300 Lenin Street, Perm Photo: Alexander Khomutov
APPLE 2010 Concrete, cement, brick wall fragments, porcelain tile 300 × 300 × 300 Lenin Street, Perm Photo: Alexander Khomutov
APPLE 2010 Concrete, cement, brick wall fragments, porcelain tile 300 × 300 × 300 Lenin Street, Perm
APPLE 2010 Concrete, cement, brick wall fragments, porcelain tile 300 × 300 × 300 Lenin Street, Perm
APPLE 2010 Concrete, cement, brick wall fragments, porcelain tile 300 × 300 × 300 Lenin Street, Perm
CORE 2009–2010 Brick wall fragment, ceramic tile, cement, metal pipe 190 × 40 × 75 Private collection, Kyiv
APPLE 2010 Concrete, cement, brick wall fragments, porcelain tile 300 × 300 × 300 Lenin Street, Perm
APPLE 2010 Concrete, cement, brick wall fragments, porcelain tile 300 × 300 × 300 Lenin Street, Perm
© Тексты о работах: Олена Червонык, Виталий Атанасов
© Дизайн: Денис Рубан
© Переводы: Лариса Бабий,
Екатерина Кочеткова, Марьяна Матвейчук,
Куролай Абдухаликова