Veronika Yemelianova’s Exhibition Act: All Theatrical Performances Are Forbidden for Twenty Years
On 30 July, the Kyiv-based art space Kudriavka opened Act: All Theatrical Performances Are Forbidden for Twenty Years, a new solo exhibition by Ukrainian artist Veronika Yemelianova. At the heart of the project lies a simple yet unsettling question: What happens to desire when it loses access to its object? Does it disappear altogether, or does it merely change direction, continuing to exist through play, repetition, memory, or private ritual?
Veronika Yemelianova's work has been featured in Vogue, L'Officiel, Harper's Bazaar, and Numéro, while her projects have also been presented as part of Ukrainian Fashion Week.
The exhibition's title refers to the events of 1642, when, during the English Civil War, Parliament—strongly influenced by Puritan ideology—ordered the closure of theatres. Stage performances were condemned as sources of moral corruption and a threat to public order.
Yet the ban on theatre was about more than entertainment. It was also an attempt to control the narratives emerging within spaces of collective experience. The stage offered audiences an opportunity to imagine alternative realities, confront uncomfortable questions, and move beyond officially sanctioned discourse.
Revisiting this historical episode, Veronika Yemelianova introduces her own premise: all theatrical performances are forbidden for twenty years. In her interpretation, however, prohibition becomes not an ending but the beginning of an inward transformation. Once the direct path is closed, imagination begins constructing alternative routes, while desire discovers new ways of remaining present.
The exhibition is built around three video performances, each exploring a different state of forbidden desire. In the first, desire appears as an intense, almost obsessive search for a lost object. In the second, it transforms into play, repetition, and attempts to find another way forward. By the third, the original cause has gradually faded, yet the impulse itself survives—as habit, embodied memory, or a distant echo.
The visual presence of the exhibition's protagonist throughout both the video works and the photographic series is shaped not only by the model's compelling performance, but also by sculptural corsets created by the Ukrainian-born slow fashion label ЦYSHKOVSKYI. Their architectural silhouettes, precise tailoring, and structural approach to the body reinforce the exhibition's central dialogue between physical constraint and the pursuit of inner freedom. Within this context, fashion functions not merely as costume but as an essential component of the artistic language itself.
Alongside the video performances, the exhibition features sculptural objects, installations, and visual works derived from the objects and materials appearing in the films. It also includes a photographic series created in collaboration with photographer Artem Plutalov. Produced as metal prints and archival pigment prints, the photographs occupy the exhibition space alongside the physical artefacts of the performances, extending the narrative beyond the moving image.
Rather than separating media into distinct categories, the exhibition constructs a unified environment in which moving images, photography, installation, and objects become different traces of the same experience. Visitors are invited not simply to observe a narrative but to accompany the artist through a gradual transformation—from urgent longing toward a state in which desire no longer possesses a clearly defined object, yet continues to exist.
The project reaches beyond its historical reference point. It resonates with the contemporary reality of Ukraine, where war continually reshapes everyday life, narrows possibilities, and forces people to rethink their personal futures. According to Yemelianova, art under such circumstances does more than document a changing reality—it preserves a space for imagination. The ability to imagine, she suggests, allows individuals to maintain a sense of inner freedom even when external circumstances impose severe limitations.
The exhibition opening brought together members of Kyiv's cultural and creative communities. Guests' looks are captured in the event's accompanying street style feature, reflecting the city's distinctive dialogue between contemporary fashion and art.
Text: Yanina Provotar
Photos: Courtesy of the organizers
