Only for Men
Performance by Borys Kashapov
8.6.2023, 18:00

“Only for Men” is a performance during which Borys Kashapov creates a painting exhibition on the nails of the visitor, turning the viewer’s body into a space for artistic expression and transforming the one from the private person to the public nomadic art institution that tours the nail exhibition wherever they go. With this practice, he explores the relationships between the artist and the viewer inviting the latter to share the risks of the artistic responsibility.

The title refers, of course, to the practices of exclusion inherent to patriarchal society. Yet in this case the artist is transforming privilege usually associated with male exclusivity into a challenge. Participation in the performance is open to any gender. With the discrimination stated by the title the artist invites everyone who doesn’t consider themselves a man to ignore it, just like any other discriminatory prohibition.

“It is important for me to have power over the people who are getting a manicure from me.  On the occasion of making nails, the viewer and the artist meet and have the opportunity to talk about art, the responsibilities and risks of being an artist, and the contribution of feminists to art history. I do it for free, because here the viewer himself “pays” with his nails, with his courage”, explains the artist.

Borys Kashapov is a Kyiv based artist, a graduate of the Rodchenko School of Photography and Multimedia. Kashapov was a member of the REP Group, the Penoplast dream-band, The Gay Carousel collective. Initiator of many self-organising projects and alter-institutional artistic practices. Works with video, performance. Through his works he explores power relations in art, and political aspects of the form.
Among his recent exhibitions: “Fast, Easy, Unsafe”, 2021, Small Gallery of Art Arsenal (Kyiv, UA), “Portrait of my Soil”, 2022, Muzeul de Arta Recenta (Bucharest, RO), “Here.Now”, 2022, Rezidența 9 (Bucharest, RO), “State of Emergence”, 2022, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery (Bucharest, RO), “Ghosts are welcomed to the garden”, 2022, Istituto Svizzero (Rome, It), “Sweet Dreams Foundation”, 2022, Nida Art Colony (Nida, LT, Kaunas, LT), Anomalia (Kyiv, UA).

Borys Kashapov is an Artists at Risk (AR) Safe Haven Helsinki Resident, organised and curated by Perpetuum Mobile ry. This residency is co-funded by the Nordic-Baltic Mobility Programme for Culture, the City of Helsinki Department of Culture and Leisure and TAIKE.

Curated by Ramiro Camelo

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