The studios of Nahirna22, a collective of young artists based at the Kyiv Institute of Automation, have been badly damaged by a Russian drone strike for the second time in less than three months.
The space, which houses 30 studios, was struck on Friday 14 November amid a Russian air raid that killed six people in the Ukrainian capital. Nahirna22's studios recently reopened following another attack in August this year, which destroyed windows and left pock-marked canvases hanging on the walls.
“Yes, it's happened again,” Marta Nyrkova, an artist and the co-founder of Nahirna22 told The Art Newspaper. “We really want to stay. But if the building is declared unsafe, we have to move.”
In an Instagram post, the collective reported that plastic windows installed thanks to crowdfunding following the August attack had survived this latest hit, but that wooden windows had been destroyed, leaving studios covered in glass and rubble.
“The drone fell on the roof on the other side of the building,” Nyrkova said. “We don't know now if the institute managers can fix it. Because it costs much more than our windows.”
The collective previously raised funds to fix their space by hosting a day of open studios which drew hundreds of visitors. Another event is planned for later this month and a sale of works is due to take place in Berlin in December.
Anna Maydanik, an American writer and gallerist from a Ukrainian-Russian family, runs a self-named space at Nahirna 2. She launched Anna gallery in June with Scent of Death, a solo show of works by Kyiv-based artist Margo Rieznik, who was born in 1993, two years after Ukraine declared independence from the Soviet Union.
Maydanik, who was in Kyiv during the August attack, told The Art Newspaper: “This new attack threatens to quieten the new generation of Ukrainian artists.” However, she continued: “I believe that Kyiv is the only city in the western world where the avant-garde is still alive. Where everyone is so profoundly different from each other.”
The Anglo-French actor Edward Akrout, who founded Art Shield, a US non-profit that aids Ukrainian culture on the ground and has a partnership with Nahirna22, told The Art Newspaper: “What happened to Nahirna22 is not accidental. It was targeted twice.
“This fits a long pattern. The Kremlin has destroyed or stolen Ukrainian art for years and has killed artists for years.”