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Participants: Irina Danilova (performer), Olena Makhotilo (braider), Maria Kvitma (presenter and haircutter), Maks Mokritsky (haircutter), Sofia Kompaniets (haircutter), Daryna Kosichenko (photographer and haircutter). Photos by Mikhailo Kvitka and Daryna Kosichenko.
The 10th braid was cut during the Quadrennial Shaving Performance in the ArtPidval (ArtBasement) experimental art space of the Municipal Gallery in Kharkiv, Ukraine (director Tatyana Tumasyan). It was the first 40 Years After performance, accompanied by a homonymous exhibition.
Every four years on the same date, Irina harvests her hair into a collection of braids. First haircut was in 1984 in Kharkiv when she was leaving her hometown after graduating from Kharkiv Academy of Art and Design. Two artist friends, Masha Glushchenko and Lena Kudinova, came for a farewell party. Irina asked them to cut off her hair as a symbolic act for starting a new time in life. It later turned into the Quadrennial Performance every leap year and became a project about the duration of life. Hair is the only part of the human body that shows time in length, like a timeline. The first hair cut in Kharkiv was not saved. The Braids Collection started in 1988 with the 1984-1988 braid. When, at the 40 Years After exhibition at the Municipal Gallery ArtPidval (ArtBasement) Irina installed her braids, she realized that they measured the time of her life outside of Kharkiv. In 2004 Irina came to Kharkiv for the 20 Years After Quadrennial Performance (Palitra Gallery, curator Andrei Avdeenko). The 40 Years After performance was planned in Kharkiv before the war in Ukraine. Kharkiv is close to the border with the Russian Federation. Every missile fired from there hits the city within minutes. 40 Years After Performance was about death, suffering, and life under bombardments in existential danger.
Following the massive bombing of Kharkiv, the day of the performance became a day of sorrow for 8 fallen residents, including a 14-year-old girl and the 18 years old artist Nika, 96 were injured, among them 22 children. The performance started with the Moment of Silence. In memory of a friend, experimental composer Phill Niblock, who died earlier that year, the performance was accompanied with his musical composition, Stosspeng, and video screening of the closeup of real-time recording.
The Municipal Gallery, founded in 1996, featured two locations: the refurbished deep WWII bomb shelter, which served as the experimental area ArtPidval (art basement), and a vast main gallery space above it. The main gallery was damaged by the intense shelling of the center of the city, and the gallery's operations were relocated to the ArtPidval. It was safe to have visitors deep underground. The gallery was open 24/7 to serve as a shelter.
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