Mariya Hoyin
About the artist
Graduated from the Lviv National Academy of Fine. Awarded Gaude Polonia scholarship (curated by Ewa Zarzycka, Wroclaw 2017). Her projects include Periphery (2016), Three Dots (2017), Diary during the War (from 2022 on), comic strip Everyday Life of the Labyrinth Gallery (2023). She has participated in international exhibitions and festivals in Ukraine, Poland, Czech Republic, Germany, Moldova and Thailand. She works with analog photography, printmaking, performance, collage and video. Her work explores the themes of memory, place, history, past and present. She lives and works in Lviv.
Creativity gives us wings, evokes a desire for life, prevents discouragement. That is why it is so important for me to have time for creative work. The war deprived me of this opportunity for a long time. You feel a desire to create, but all the time you are in the state of numbness, you cannot take a step forward or backwards. The whole situation has changed and a whole new time has begun, both in private life and in artistic work. I am able to work creatively again, and I am very happy about it, but unfortunately intermittently. I feel like I am in a black hole, and I do not know when I will be able to get out of it. The theme of my works has also changed, just as life has changed during the war. I keep thinking about my mother and sister who stayed in Lviv, about the war that brought death to our country, about innocent people who die in besieged cities, about soldiers who want to stay at home with their families but are forced to fight to defend our country. I think about this all the time, and I do not know if it is right or wrong, but it is just the way it is. In my current works, as well as the pre-war ones, I focus on the theme of memory. I consider this topic to be very important. In the context of the war even more so. Personal stories, events, places, people, everything that has touched me gets reflected in my works, in photography, performance or graphics….
At the moment I am in a black hole. The only thing I can say about my performance is that it will certainly be another reflection on all the horror going on around me.