WARP #16 | Forgotten Memories

In the interval of paralysis, when the communication that goes through is disrupted, blocked or lost somewhere, it is in that interstitial space that something happens. Anna Kudryashova’s artistic research feeds on these very moments and often stems from intimate experiences where feelings are so present that they have to leave her body and take their own shapes. Seeking to understand the exchanges and feedbacks between memory and body, identity and materiality, conscious intention and resulting actions, Kudryashova draws on this tension often looking at her body both as a site of paralysis and vessel through which new forms of expression can generate. Her works primarily accompany visitors between film-based personal past archives and susceptible performances recorded in person, bringing up inquiries on cultural identity and everything that the concept of memory brings with it.

Anna Kudryashova’s body memories speak

Whoever comes across Anna Kudryashova’s body of works, cannot ignore the palpable presence of her complex yet simple actions. It especially feels like her projects are not really committed to the formal qualities of her materials, but rather their intimate and transmissive ones. In the upcoming exhibition Forgotten Memories the viewer is, indeed, encouraged to become consumed by the emotional energy of the images and the performances become so powerful that anyone is drawn to watch it over and over. Anna Kudryashova’s impact remains, much like the images she shapes, stained in visitors’ minds, asking us to consider what is the actual end of those forgetting memories. When are they really forgotten?

Rituals of letting go

How, then, do we feed ourselves once everything is paralyzed? Anna Kudryashova’s way of escaping (or perhaps going through) is to initiate small rituals in which learning (and teaching) to let go. A body of four works, titled At the end of forgotten memories (2021-2022), signs the beginning of goodbyes and the grieving process. Experimenting with performance, Kudryashova takes risks with her own body: digging, burning, washing, cutting become almost cathartic actions that call upon her sense of nostalgia and mourning. Bringing those feelings to an actual exorcive action through the consistent use of soil, water and fire, allows space for giving an end to the physical existence of memories and creating works of endurance. For a few minutes the static camera focuses on the artist’s silhouette, giving the viewer enough time to slowly take in all the main details of the landscapes: the whole process and images become deeply personal, reflecting the reality of her own experiences. Most of Kudryashova’s research is, indeed, an ongoing dialogue between her body and memories of her past that inevitably keep on informing the present by shaping her comfort zones, as visually narrated in her video performance Breakable worlds (2023-ongoing). Her art stands upon experiences she lived by herself, looking back at her past and rethinking values diverse situations have had on her: how do comfort zones get destroyed through personal change and the outside inputs? As in her video-installation The past is fading away (2023), it is about the distortions, blurs and transformations of memories over time, realising how fast ideas we have about ourselves and the world can break when coming across new people and realities. Consider her life: carrying within her mixed roots, but growing up in The Netherlands, Anna Kudryashova has been dealing with the constant effort of fitting into a new place. Grief for Home (2020) performance reenacts, indeed, how immigration took the experience of feeling home away from her. That was the moment in which her research diverged a bit more into displacement, its both positive and negative effects on a person’s soul and into the ever-present disconnection from the concepts of place, identity, belonging and home. 

Anatomy of the threshold

In this light, her work sort of explores the anatomy of the threshold, dealing with the border between presence and absence in reality, body and thoughts, and the alienation that can take place between reality and individuals. Indeed, many of her projects feel like performative attempts of depicting transparency to create a dreamlike parallel world where freely displaying feelings. Let’s just have a look at her video-performance installation Self-censorship (2020) where, citing strict controls on flow of information and freedom of speaking over civil society, Anna Kudryashova explores in a visceral way self-censorship. She is hanging inside a self-knotted rope wondering, how does it feel when fear traps you inside your own body while betraying your beliefs? 

From those written narrations of her works, one could easily understand how Anna Kudryashova gives space to her memories and gives them such diverse directions. There is one more video that cannot be skipped, Unpresent time (2020), where the title itself sounds already like predicting a significant moment. “If present time exists there must be an unpresent time”, she suddenly thinks during one of her intimate reflections. In this installation, a metal fence intertwined with ceramic shapes and a wide roll of paper is in the front while in the background a video where the artist is in the middle of a snowy town, is running. Kudryashova explores those passive -apparently insignificant- moments where waiting for something to happen, where thoughts are getting foggy, and where someone believes physically is there, but not really. Different layers of correspondence display those moments where there is no strong communication between the subject and the outside world, moments which, actually, Kudryashova finds quite revealing in terms of the level of freedom. Feeling free from interaction, free from conscious thoughts and free from the moment itself, because it is unimportant. 

Forgotten memories (2024)

Here at SEA Foundation, Anna Kudryashova presents her new installation Forgotten Memories. “Our memories, like paper boats, are delicate and easily shaped or torn apart by time. Even the most fragile memories leave their mark on us. Some moments remain vivid, while others fade or shift, much like paper dissolving in water. Intact or fragmented, each memory influences us, shaping our identity and guiding our personal growth.

For me, the paper boats mirror my own relationship with memory. I grew up in Russia but emigrated to Europe with my mother when I was fourteen. Those years spent in a new country greatly influenced how I see the world, and how I view my own past. My hometown remains unchanged in my memory, frozen in time, even though life there has moved on. Today, I look back at my past through the lens of current reality and find the simple fact of where I come from to be more complicated than it once seemed.

The past doesn’t change, but our perspective on it does. My memories—like paper boats—continue to stay with me, shaping who I am, even as they take on new meanings over time”.

Bio Anna Kudryashova

Anna Kudryashova lives and works in Tilburg, Netherlands. Her art performances are often documented on video and centre on simple, repeated actions or subtle interactions within public spaces, engaging deeply with social, cultural, and personal themes. Her work is usually understated, inviting viewers to reconsider the everyday as she explores memory, identity, and the transient nature of human experience. 

Kudryashova’s performances incorporate elements of endurance or repetition, where actions may seem small or even futile but carry profound meaning about persistence, identity, and collective memory. Through seemingly simple gestures, she taps into shared experiences and emotions, creating poetic connections between personal acts and broader societal themes.

Anna Kudyrashova was born in 1996 in Cheboksary, in the Chuvash Republic of Russia. At the age of thirteen, she emigrated with her mother to a Belgian village right on the border with the Netherlands. The unfamiliar surroundings and language barriers posed challenges in communication, but also inspired her to explore new ways of expressing her inner world.

In 2022, Anna graduated from the Fine Arts department at St. Joost in Den Bosch. She is a team member of artist-run space SEA Foundation.

References

Van Der Kolk, B. (n.d.). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. Penguin UK.

Damasio, A. R. (2000). The feeling of what happens: body and emotion in the making of consciousness. Choice Reviews Online, 37(11), 37–6553. 

Genova, L., (2022). Remember: The science of memory and the art of forgetting. Allen & Unwin.

Malcolm, J., (2023). Still pictures: On photography and memory. Granta Books.

Lepecki, A. (2016). The body as an archive. Mimesis Journal, 5, 1, 30–52.

Website Anna Kudryashova
Instagram Anna Kudryashova