‘Lustration / Ablution’ is a long-term performance conceived by Ukrainian artist Maria Kulikovska, planned to be made 88 times in total. The first one was held on 8th March of 2018 at Mystetskyi Arsenal National Art and Culture Museum Complex in Kyiv, Ukraine. A month later, the artist made the re-enactment for Vogue UA and repeated it in the park of Ebenbockhouse in Munich, Germany as part of a residency by the Pasinger Fabrik Art Centre and the Art Collection Deutsche Telekom. By the end of 2020, the performance was shown as a part of the artist's personal exhibition ‘From action to performative sculpture: Maria Kulikovska’ at Shcherbenko Art Centre for the fourth time.
In this performance, Maria Kulikovska is in the bathtub together with her sculpture-copy and she lustrates herself. She washes her body and face – she is extracting a sacrifice, thus cleaning up from traumas. “I wash my face with my own hands, I brush my hair, I peel off my soap skin, I wipe myself and scrub” as Kulikovska explains. “I watch the lustration of my image and the image of women in the patriarchal context. Washing and cleaning by my own hands is a reference to invisible women's labour, which the society imagines as something beautiful, normal and natural, woven into the skin of every woman, but which also quietly dissolves her.”
ZURICH ART WEEKEND is a non-profit organisation that brings together Zurich’s major public and private art institutions through a variety of initiatives and events. In close collaboration with art institutions, galleries, off-spaces, and private and public collections, our annual three-day flagship event ZURICH ART WEEKEND facilitates access to culture and sheds new light on the art scene of Switzerland’s largest city.
Performance ‘Lustration/Ablution’ by Maria Kulikovska
Performing Kyiv | Part III at Zurich Art Weekend
Cabaret Voltaire, Zürich, Switzerland
Date/Time: Saturday, June 10, 14:00
