IRA KURHANSKA

Ira Kurhanska (*1995, Kyiv, UA) lives and works in Bern, CH and Kyiv, UA. With her BA and first MA in philosophy and literature, Ira Kurhanska explores, through installation, performance, and texts, the complexity of human fate against historical backgrounds, social and human nature paradoxes and contradictions, and reflects on current political affairs.

2012-2018: BA and MA in Literature and Comparative Studies with minor in Cultural Studies at National University ‘Kyiv-Mohyla Academy’.

2016-2023: yeas of experience in curating and museum work at state museums, galleries, institutions etc. in Kyiv and Austria.

2023-2025: CAP

2023: Salzburg Summer Academy scholarship (course “Anti-Monumental”) (AU)

2024: Scholarship and winter school for young writers from PEN Ukraine (UA)

2025: Summer school and residence at ‘School of disobedience’ (HU)

Instagram: @ira.kurhanska

Artist Statement

Arkan, 2025

Deep in the Carpathian Mountains, the Arkan dance has been performed for centuries. Men form a circle, place their hands on each other’s shoulders, and following the leader’s commands begin a dance that can last for hours.
You cannot break the circle.
You cannot fall out of the circle.
You cannot disobey the command.
You cannot stop the dance.
Human feet beat out an ancient rhythm; the mountains gladly offer their chests to the familiar melody. In the accelerating endless circle, the bodies of men intertwine into a single organism, ready for battle.


Grassroots, 2025

“Bellum omnium contra omnes”.
Thomas Hobbes

“Plants cannot move to escape their predators, so they must have other means of protecting themselves”.
Wikipedia

“The power of the powerless”.
Václav Havel

“And though they may cut all the flowers,
You cannot keep spring from coming”.
Pablo Neruda (?)

“As long as we do not suddenly become unpleasant, as long as we do not say anything strange, sharp, as long as we do not stare at our nails and bare our teeth, as long as we do not become wild and cynical”.
György Konrad