Daria Pugachova - Winter 2022 NEW WORK grantee

Daria Pugachova is an interdisciplinary artist based in Ukraine with a background in architecture and music. Her works are comprised of performance, video art and art activism. In her projects, Daria uses participatory practices to unite communities and integrate art into daily life.

Microcosmos

Microcosmos explores life in the post-Soviet district in Poltava, Ukraine. In the project the artist comes to the Polovky district as an astronaut looking for a home, trying to relate to this new reality. She interacts directly with the local residents of Polovky and learns about their childhood memories, dreams, and what it’s like living in this eastern Ukraine area.  She takes these interactions with the inhabitants of Space Lane and incorporates them into a performance where she symbolically launches their dreams into space.

“Microcosms are formed and intertwined, stars are born and die. And in every town of Ukraine, there is such a yard. I was born and raised in such a yard. And now I want to explore it as an artist. A typical yard ("microcosm") as a model of the universe. People are planets in it, everyone has their orbit. What do the inhabitants of Space Lane live on? What important events happened to them in 2021? What did they dream of as children and what do they dream of now? Tell me about your yard, remember your dream. We will launch it into the sky. I am part of the cosmos, just like you are.” - Daria Pugachova

The project consists of a 30-minute video, photographs of Polovky residents, and the astronaut’s costume that was created for the project.