Zhanna Kadyrova: The Forest

Read about the event in Ukrainian

Ukrainian artist Zhanna Kadyrova’s IHME Helsinki Commission 2025 will open to the public on Ukraine’s Independence Day, Sunday, 24 August 2025. The Forest – a video installation – will be presented at the Steam Power Plant of the Power Station Museum (Voimalamuseo, Hämeentie 163, Helsinki) and will be on view for six weeks until 2 October 2025.

In The Forest, viewers see an endlessly stretching young forest swaying in the wind. On 6 June 2023, Russia’s attack destroyed the Kakhovka Dam, drained a vast artificial reservoir covering 2,155 square kilometres, and caused immeasurable devastation to the surrounding environment, villages, and towns. Simultaneously, valuable cultural heritage of the area was destroyed. Within a year, a four-meter-high forest of willows and poplars had grown in place of the reservoir.

In the work, the artist reflects on the consequences of both “progress” and conflict on life-sustaining systems. She examines the history of the Kakhovka Dam area, and the cycle of violence associated with it. The work encourages viewers to consider our relationship with the environment, both from an ecological perspective and in terms of post-war material reconstruction. It offers a moment of hopeful reflection in a time of conflict and environmental crisis.

Zhanna Kadyrova (b. 1981), an internationally acclaimed artist, creates site-specific and spatial works using a range of media including sculpture, photography, video, and performance. She lives and works in Kyiv and regularly visits war zones to witness the destruction firsthand and meet the people living there. During her visit to Helsinki, Kadyrova became interested in the history and current state of the Vanhankaupunginkoski Rapids. Based on ecological values, the City of Helsinki is investigating the possibility of dismantling the dam that restrains the rapids. In March 2025, Kadyrova was awarded the Ukrainian State Prize – Schevchenko National Prize – in the field of visual arts.

IHME Helsinki is a contemporary art commissioning organization that brings together art, science, and climate work. Zhanna Kadyrova’s IHME Helsinki 2025 work will also be presented in Ukraine as a local production for a local audience.

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