Without Women, Collateral Event of the 59th International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia

The Visual Research Support Foundation is pleased to present an exhibition of artist Zinaida’s multi-media work, Without Women, which will be presented for the first time as a Collateral Event of the 59th International Art Exhibition - La Biennale di Venezia.

Without Women, an encompassing multi-media installation Zinaida has been working on since 2017, incorporating video, large-scale photography and perception manipulation to create a potent narrative of identity constructs, mythologies and past folklore. Filmed in the Carpathian Mountains in Ukraine, the artist captures traditional sheep herders and their masculine roles during their long and isolated treks through the vast countryside. Two large-scale video projects document the monastic-like life of the men, while a photo-based installation highlights the production of sheep’s milk and the symbolism attached to that regional sustentative production. The movement of the men and their labor draws notions of both bonding, individualism, and isolation. Simplification of life and various voids are present. Without Women is a manifestation of unknown micro cultures, current media discussions and the traditional societies in which we live—the work serving as a code for understanding contemporary cultural imbalances.

Zinaida recently elaborated, “The artwork shows that a person fully and vividly reveals their true nature facing difficult conditions and the viewer learns and feels the magic of that energy transformation when walking through the exhibition. The emphasis on the absence of women is actually the symbolic presence of the invisible woman, the feminine energy along with the masculine.”

The Collateral Event Without Women is part of the Biennale Arte 2022  titled The Milk of Dreams through distinctive interpretations of discoveries and rediscoveries within her artistic practice. Her intention is to continue assessing the dominating role of men in society and consider relationships between humans.

In curating the exhibition, Dallas Contemporary Executive Director Peter Doroshenko has emphasized that “Zinaida is a national cultural figure for Ukraine. Over the last fifteen years, she has summarised, documented and interpreted contemporary Ukrainian society through her work. Zinaida’s works have become an important and seminal influence for all contemporary Ukrainian artists.”