Daria Pugachova in Houston - Here and Now

Daria Pugachova is an multidisciplinary artist and performer from Ukraine. As a CEC ArtsLink International Fellowships, she is touring the U.S. performing and giving lectures in New York, Boston, and Houston. As part of her program at Blaffer Museum she screened her movie “Microcosmos”this past Tuesday, November 5th.

In “Microcosms,” (2021-2022) she explores with residents of her Ukrainian neighborhood in Poltava their dreams, life, and memories of their childhood in the yards where they live. The film is a perfect introduction to Pugachova’s work, which by her own account, “creates a space for people to take part.” From the beginning of her practice, she has worked to remove the 4th wall between art and the audience. Starting by performing in public spaces that are accessible to everyone, and not exclusive by location or other criteria to art patrons only, she then invites the audience to become participants. This inclusiveness erases the boundary between audience and artist and connects people who may never visit an exhibition to art and the process of making art.

Using this approach in here work, I WILL WAKE UP WHEN THIS FOUNTAIN IS FILLED UP (2021),

[Contemporary Art Rivne, Thumbelina Fountain, Rivne, Ukraine, 2021. © Daria Pugachova. Photo: by Elena Rabkina]

where she activated a public fountain in disrepair, Pugachova and her co-artist were able to convince the local authorities to restore it.

She used the same technique in I WILL CLOSE THE SKY SO YOU COULD BREATHE (2022), where she protested the Russian invasion of Ukraine. As envisioned, she created the “piece as an act of unity, inviting people to join and together we create a symbol for the protection of the Ukrainian sky.” But no one came. So she performed the piece alone.

Then she went to the Hague. Before, during, and after a hearing by the UN International Court of Justice on the recognition of Russia’s crimes of genocide in Ukraine, she performed CITIES OF WAR (2023). The work involved encasing herself in a transparent cube and writing “THE WAR IN UKRAINE IS STILL GOING ON” until the entire cube was black.

[“CITIES OF WAR”, The UN International Court of Justice, The Hague, NL, 2023. © Daria Pugachova. Photo by Milton Verseput]

Pugachova’s work is political in the very Aristotelian sense. It deals with the actions of human beings in contexts and communities. Because her community has been at war, many of her works grappled with that subject. However, while in the U.S. during her fellowship, she directed her focus on the communities that have hosted her.

[“Split”, The Happening at The Orange Show, Houston, Texas, 2024. © Daria Pugachova. Photos by Julia Claire Wallace.]

In a performance at the Orange Show’s October version of The Happening (https://www.full.orangeshow.org/performances), a monthly curated experimental performance art & open mic showcase, she performed Split, in which she donned a cowboy hat and sat on a chair between a white and black wall. Audience members were invited to participate by writing down something negative that had occurred to them in the last week on the black wall. Then they were invited to document a positive event that had occurred during the last week on the white wall. Finally, they and then “meet” her in the middle to symbolically embrace the social, psychological, and political split that she witnessed Americans struggling with.

[“DESTINY GAME”, The Dome at Notsuoh, Houston, Texas, 2024. © Daria Pugachova. Photos by Holy Moment Photography]

This past Sunday at 3 PM Daria was the inaugural artist in the new performance art series by Julia Claire Wallace hosted in Notsuoh’s Dome performance space. During the performance of DESTINY GAME, Pugachova conducted intimate, psychic reading experience based on her time in Houston, using objects she collected from interactions with the people and spaces she encountered. Her performance, crafted with and for the community, transformed the Dome into an installation space, intensifying her otherworldly presence as a kind of performance art shamanka.

[“MICROCOSMOS”, Blaffer Art Museum, Houston, Texas, 2024. © Daria Pugachova. Photo by Ann Evstigneeva]

Daria has one more performance in Houston before she heads north to Boston and New York. On Friday, November 8, 2024 she will perform with avant-garde musician and composer David Dove in Gardens for 2.

In this performance, Pugachova and Dove will enter the "Garden of the Origin" and negotiate the space using the tools and skills of their respective practices. They will navigate and negotiate the garden contemplating the following precepts:

Every creation is a mystery.

How does it come to us?

Who is the giver,

and who’s the receiver?

Can you separate

one from another?

In this Habitat Designed by Carlos Castaneira, the two artist will navigate the space and dialogue with each other and the objects that occupy the habitat, Dove on trombone and electronics, Pugachova through performance art and poetry.