Gender

«Army of Clones» is one of the first sculpture series of casts of Maria Kulikovska's body. In 2010-2011, the 20 white plaster sculptures were shown at different places in public space. It was first shown at the territory of Dovzhenko Film Studios during the festival GOGOLFEST'2010.

In spring of 2012, these plaster sculptures were transported to Donetsk, Ukraine, for the exhibition «Gender» organized by Izolyatsia Art Centre. On 9 June of 2014 a group of pro-russian terrorists shot at all sculptures of Kulikovska, which were exhibited in the territory of Izolyatsia Art Centre. Izolyatsia was captured and looted by the donetsk people's republic militants. In an interview with Russian journalist the militants explained their shot at Kulikovska's sculptures as a «shot at sculptures of a degenerative artist».

The 2010 year became the beginning of the artist's research of the body and the borders of it. So the main method and opportunity became the figures-casts of Kulikovska's own body. The body and the boundaries are a dominating aspect of Maria Kulikovska's practice. The body is the main leitmotif of the artist's artwork irrespective of the medium. Creation of the sculpture copies of own body – of the woman-artist's body – is a manifestation of a woman's presence in a context of contemporary art. A presence, which often is outside of the main discourse and need for official theoretical-practical rehabilitation.

The «Gender» exhibition and the dramatic events in Donetsk became a point of departure in Maria Kulikovska's creativity. The artist keeps coming back to the events of the first half of 2010s creating the series of her own sculptural-performative clones and by throwing the conflict performances, destroying/smashing/shooting up the fragile being of her own copies.