Date & Location
Linz, Austria.
Linz, Austria.
Hosted by OÖLKG as Artist in Residency since the beginning of russia's* war upon Ukraine, Maria Kulikovska contributed a performance right in the OK's foyer to The Non-fungible Body? festival.
In response to the ongoing situation of war, Maria Kulikovska's durational action in a "Wonderful New World" was force-feeding herself, eating her hands and feet cast from chocolate.
We eat while we check the news, we eat while reading about horror, happening right now
We watch the horror like a movie, then switch off the news and finish our desert
I live in this wonderful place with all the cafés, all the nice food, the good-quality life and the chocolate
while every day people die in the place that I come from
I am eating and eating and eating until I spit with chocolate.
Maria Kulikovska's "Performative Sculptures" are casts from her own body, which she has made from different materials such as using paraffin, chocolate, soap and gypsum. The vulnerability of the body, but also its endurance and stamina, as well as Kulikovska's self-perception of being a female Ukrainian artist are some of the core themes in her work. The chocolate casts in this performance confront us with a bold material reference, symbolising European post-war wealth, pointing to the close correlation of economic growth, abundance and human greed.
